Ginny's Life in Green and Silver
by AngelNicole2010
Summary: When eight year old Ginny Weasley befriends a group of future Slytherins, her life alters from the course it was originally designed to take. Now she is cast out like a black sheep, forcing her to make decisions that will change the world as we know it.
1. Of Finding New Friends

**This is my first attempt at fanfiction, so please if you see something wrong or can think of ways that I could improve my writing or just the story in general let me know!**

* * *

CHAPTER 1

Eight year old Ginny Weasley was running through the woods that lay behind the Burrow. She was trying to escape her older twin brothers Fred and George; they were once again set on using her as a guinea pig for the latest prank that they were developing. Usually Ginny didn't mind testing their experiments because out of the four brothers still at home, they were her favorite; but, whenever Bill was home he easily took the spot as her favorite brother. Today, Ginny just wasn't feeling it, She hated to tell the twins no because besides the fact that they would threaten to tell their mother about her stealing their brooms, she felt guilty for not helping them. They always took up for her when her older by ten minutes, twin brother Ron would pick on her for being the only girl and being the smallest.

Just as Ginny reached the edge of the woods, she stumbled upon a sight that made her freeze. There were three children; two boys and a girl that looked to be around her age, were playing in the soft green meadow that made up the clearing. She contemplating turning around and getting the heck out of there because she was a shy child and didn't deal well with confrontation, but as soon as she made up her mind to leave, the black haired girl in the clearing met her eyes and yelled,

"Stop, don't go! You can play with us too!"

At that, Ginny took a few cautious steps into the clearing and meekly said "Hi, my name is Ginny, it's nice to meet you".

The short black haired girl said "It's nice to meet you Ginny, I am Pansy. Do you live around here?".

"Yes, I live just through the woods" Ginny replied.

One of the boys, the blonde one, then stepped forward and said "My name is Draco, and I know who you are, you're a Weasley".

Ginny took a step forward and came back with "So, what's it to you? I know who you are too you're a Malfoy, and Daddy says that we are not to associate with Malfoys because they are bad people. You don't look like a bad person to me though; you're just a kid like me so how can you be bad?"

Draco then replied "Your daddy is wrong, Malfoys aren't bad, and I know for sure that my daddy isn't bad. I have the best mummy and daddy in the world!"

Pansy sensing that a fight was about to ensue, looked at Draco and said "Come on now Drakie, don't be mean! She can't help what her daddy thinks."

The other boy who was tall, tan, and had black hair, and had just been standing quietly watching the others talk, decided that it was time to step in and introduce himself to the newcomer "Don't mind Draco, he's very defensive of his family, like any pureblood wizard who's worth two knuts would be. The name's Blaise by the way". He then held out his hand which Ginny promptly shook.

The children proceeded to play until it was time to go home. They had come to the decision to meet up every Saturday to play. During this time Ginny learned plenty about her new friends, such as that Draco, Pansy, and Blaise had known each other since they were babies because their parents were such good friends. Another thing was that the woods on the other side of the meadow belonged to Pansy's family.

Ginny became fast friends with the trio, and once she realized exactly who their parents were she knew that she had to keep her new friends a secret from her family. In the past, she had overheard conversations between her parents about the three families that these children came from and she knew that considering what her parents thought about them, they would not want her being friends with them.

One fateful day, about two years after that first meeting, they were discovered. Ginny's parents, who had always been overprotective of Ginny because she was their only daughter and technically their youngest child, had noticed that she would sneak out every Saturday and stay gone all day. That day, they decided that they would follow her to see exactly where she was going. The sight of their only daughter consorting with the enemy infuriated them so much that they burst through the trees and began yelling at Ginny.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley! Just what in Merlin's name do you think you are doing young lady? These are the children of our enemies and you know better than to even be talking to them let alone sneaking off with them every Saturday!" a red faced Arthur bellowed.

Ginny knew that this was it; she would never see her friends again. With teary eyes and a heavy heart, she followed her mother and father home. Later that night, she sat in her small bedroom; she had no choice but to be up there because her parents had locked her in for defending her choice of friends once she had got home. She was looking out the window wishing she could run away to Pansy's house, when she saw a magnificent black and silver eagle owl fly to her window. She opened the window and let the owl fly in, the owl promptly held out its leg for her to take the letter that it was carrying.

Ginny opened the letter and read:

_Dear Ginny,_

_The three of us decided when your parents took you away today that one of us would write you, I volunteered to do it because Pansy is such a wreck from losing you, the only girl friend that she has ever had, and Blaise isn't much of a writer. So from now on you will get letters from me that contain news and messages from the three of us._

_I don't want to get you into trouble by sending owls, so I think it would be best if in your reply you told me what the best time to write you would be. Don't worry about never seeing us again; we will see each other in a year's time when we are all on our way to Hogwarts. We may even be in the same house, I know myself, Pansy, and Blaise will be, and despite you being a Weasley, I have a good feeling that you will be a Slytherin too!_

_Keep your head up Ginny, and don't forget to write back!_

_Your friend always,_

_Draco Malfoy_

Ginny was in tears after reading her letter, maybe she would be able to keep her friends after all! Even if it meant lying to and defying her parents she knew that she would do anything to be able to still communicate with the three. She grabbed a piece of paper, wrote a hasty reply stating that it was best to send owls at night time and thanking him for writing her and to write back, and sent the owl off.


	2. Of Birthdays and Hogwarts Letters

Over the next year many secret letters passed between Ginny and Draco, she was counting down the days until her Hogwarts letter came so that she could finally be with her friends again. Even though she was anticipating a reunion with her friends, Ginny couldn't help but worry what sort of problems would be caused by her association with them. She knew her parents did not approve, but the question was, whether or not her brothers would approve.

* * *

It was finally Ginny's and Ron's eleventh birthday, and Ginny couldn't be more excited because she knew her Hogwarts letter would finally be here within the next few months or so. The Weasleys were having a big family dinner in honor of their birthday. Their mum had baked a large chocolate cake, and made a meal big enough to easily feed at least 20 people.

As Ginny was walking downstairs to dinner she was picked up and slung over a very broad and muscular shoulder. Ginny began to yell at the mystery person to let her down. When she was finally set back on her feet and saw who it was she squealed and jumped up into big strong arms.

"Bill you made it! I haven't seen you in ages!"

"Well, I couldn't miss my favorite sister's birthday now could I?"

"No, I guess not. I just didn't expect you is all, what with your work schedule and everything. Oh yeah, don't let Ron hear you say that."

"Let him hear me say what?"

"That I'm your favorite sister. He would be oh so upset." Ginny said with a grin.

"Oh, Ginny you crack me up. What would I ever do without you?" Bill chuckled.

They had been walking downstairs while having their conversation and just as Ginny was about to come back with a witty reply, the mother called for her to come help set the table.

After the table was set and the food placed on it the family sat down to eat. Great-aunt Muriel was there and being as difficult as ever, "Molly, I don't know how you and Arthur can afford to feed this bunch".

"Ginny, Ron are you ready for cake?" Molly inquired in an attempt to turn the conversation from this uncomfortable topic.

After the cake was cut and eaten the family retired to the living room so that the younger set of Weasley twins could open their presents. Ron opened his presents first being as he was ten minutes older. He received a Chudley Cannons poster from Charlie, a knit blanket in the Cannons colors from his parents, 'Hogwarts, A History' from Percy, a toilet seat that Fred and George had sent him from Hogwarts, Cannons figurines from Bill, a hand sewn wand holder from Ginny. From Muriel he received a new set of school robes.

Ron thanked everybody for the gifts and then it was finally time for Ginny to open her presents. From Charlie she got a set of pink silk pajamas with light green dragons on them. "Oh thank you Charlie I love these" Ginny gushed.

"No problem baby sister, I knew you would like them" replied Charlie.

Ginny moved on to the next presents, which had arrived this morning from Fred, George, and Percy who were all off at Hogwarts. The twins had sent her some jokes from Zonkos and Percy had sent her a package of Sugar Quills from Honeydukes. "I'll have to write them a thank you letter" Ginny stated.

"That's not fair they sent you good stuff, and all I got was crap!" exclaimed Ron.

"That's because I'm their favorite sister Ronald. Get over it! They can't have two favorites" Ginny replied. Bill began to snicker because he remembered their earlier conversation and Ron turned red. Molly who sensed a fight was about to begin turned to Ginny and said "Ginny dear, why don't you finish opening your gifts".

Ginny obeyed and proceeded to open the rest of her gifts. Like Ron she received a new set of school robes from Muriel. From Bill she got a set of Falmouth Falcons pajamas because despite how everyone in the family thought that the Holyhead Harpies were her favorite Quidditch team, the Falcons were really her favorites. Even though Bill was away all the time, he knew her best that's what made him her all-time favorite brother. Her parents gave her a pink homemade bedspread. When it was time for Ron to give her his present he said "I didn't get you anything, but you can have this book Percy sent me. I didn't want it anyways".

"Ronald what happened to the money I gave you to get her something?" Molly asked.

"I bought some candy Mum. I don't see what the big deal is; she only made me a crappy wand holder."

"Ronald Weasley! Your sister worked very hard to make that for you. I want you to apologize to her this instant!" Molly screeched.

"Sorry Gin, I didn't mean it, and I'm sorry I didn't get you anything." Ron said insincerely.

"It's ok Ron; I know how much you like candy. I didn't need anything else anyways." Ginny replied knowing that the only way to appease her mother was to accept his apology even if he wasn't sincere about it.

"Alright you two, its bed time." said Arthur, he was ready for the peace and quiet that came when his two youngest children were asleep in their beds.

"Ok daddy, goodnight I love you all." Ginny said before walking up the stairs. When she entered her small pink bedroom she saw Draco's owl perched on her headboard and a package on her bed. She sat down and opened the package, on top was a letter which she unfolded and read.

_Dear Ginny,_

_Happy Birthday from the three of us! Enclosed in the package are your birthday gifts. We all miss you and can't wait to see you at Hogwarts. Pansy is driving Blaise and me crazy because she doesn't have anybody to talk about girly things with. We are all doing fine; Blaise is going to his villa in Italy with his family next week. Pansy is going on vacation in Spain around the same time, and father is taking me to a Falcons match next month. I'll be sure to send you a souvenir because I know how much you love them. Well, I'll end this so you can open your gifts. Don't forget to write back!_

_Your friend,_

_Draco_

Ginny set the letter down and reached for the first gift, it was a set of silver hairbrushes from Pansy. Attached to one of the brushes was a note that read _'Mum got me a set of these for Christmas; they are spelled to get the tangles out without hurting. I thought you could use a set too with that head of thick hair that you have.'_

The next gift was from Blaise, it was a package of Honeydukes' finest chocolates a note attached to the package read _'I had my older sister Serenity get these for me on one of her Hogsmeade weekends. Enjoy!' _The final gift was from Draco, it was a pair of emerald earrings. There was a note folded up on the box, _'I didn't know what to get you, so I asked mum to help me. She took me to the jewelry store in Diagon Alley because apparently women love jewelry and she thought that's what I should get you. I picked these emeralds because I have seen you in green and it looks lovely on you, plus I know that green is your favorite color and considering that I believe that you will most definitely be a Slytherin they will look good with your uniform.'_

Ginny was extremely happy with her gifts, she had never gotten such nice things. Her friends knew her very well and were extremely thoughtful when picking out her gifts. She opened the top drawer of her bedside dresser, removed the false bottom and placed her gifts in there so her family wouldn't find them and come to the conclusion of where and how she had gotten them. Ginny had a habit of hiding things in there, especially candy because Ron would often come in her room and steal hers. The only other person who knew about that drawer was Bill because he placed it there for her and made it undetectable by anyone except Ginny and himself. That was another reason that Bill was her favorite brother, he was always doing stuff for her and he was the only one who didn't condemn her after their parents found out about her friends.

Ginny decided to write Draco back before she went to bed, so she took out a quill and wrote:

_Dear My Three Best friends,_

_Thank you all for the gifts, I loved them all! Pansy, I haven't tried the brushes yet, but I will use them before I go to bed. Blaise, oh how well you know me! I'm sure the chocolates will be delicious, thank you for going through all of the trouble of trying to get them for me. Draco, I love the earrings, and yes you were right green is my favorite color. I'm not so sure about me being a Slytherin though, Weasleys are Gryffindors. We can still be friends even if I'm not a Slytherin right? Well I'm going to go to bed now; you all have fun on your vacations._

_Your Friend,_

_Ginny_

Ginny folded the letter, and tied it to the owl who took off through the window. She then opened her drawer took out her new brushes and brushed her hair while munching on her chocolates. When she was done, she placed the brushes in the drawer, then turned off the light and went to sleep.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Two months later, Ginny was outside helping Fred and George, who had come home for summer holidays two weeks after her birthday, to degnome the garden. They had just finished up, when Ron came bursting through the back door shouting "Hey, our letters just came! You lot get in the house we have a big day ahead of us because we're going shopping!"

Ginny ran inside, she was so excited. This was the moment she had been waiting for, she was finally going to Hogwarts, and would be able to see her friends again. When Ginny reached the living room she sat on the couch beside Ron and patiently waited for her letter.

Her mother handed Percy his letter first, since he was the oldest still in school. As she was making her way to Fred and George, Percy cried out "I made Prefect!"

"That's wonderful dear, I'm so proud of you! I will have your father give you a little extra money when we go to Diagon Alley today so you can buy yourself a little something extra." Molly said. She then handed Fred and George their letters. When she got to Ron and handed him his, Ginny realized something was horribly wrong, her mother didn't have another letter in her hands.

"Mum, where's my letter?" Ginny asked worriedly.

"Well dear," Molly shared a guilty look with Arthur, "I hate to tell you this, but you're a Squib. We have known this since you were a baby and you showed no signs of magic, we didn't tell you until now because we didn't want you thinking that there was something wrong with you".

All of the other children in the room gasped and Ginny just burst out in tears. "You aren't going to send me away like Aunt Muriel did with cousin Bernie are you?" Ginny cried.

"No dear, we wouldn't do that to you. The only thing that's going to be different is that you won't be going to Hogwarts with your brothers" Molly replied.

"Mum that doesn't make sense, her letter must have just got lost or something. She can't be a Squib, remember how she busted all of the windows in the house when you wouldn't let her have some candy. She must have been about three then" said Fred.

"Or how about when she was about four, she froze all of the pipes in the house because she didn't want to take a bath" George added.

"No boys that was Ronald that you are thinking of. He was a powerful little tyke. I image he will be a very powerful wizard when he reaches his potential." Molly replied. Ron beamed and shot Ginny an apologetic look.

"Mum I clearly remember that it was Gin. Surely you could write Professor Dumbledore and have him make sure." Percy stated.

"No buts. I'm pretty sure that I know which of my children did what. Now who's ready to go shopping?" Molly asked trying to change the subject.

"Mum, may I stay home? This is a lot to take in." Ginny pleaded.

"Sure Ginny. We will be home later. Stay in the house. We will know if you go anywhere." Arthur said sternly.

After the family left, Ginny trudged up the stairs to her bedroom, when she go there she got out a piece of parchment and wrote a tearstained letter.

_Dear Friends,_

_It turns out that you will not be seeing me at Hogwarts after all. My letter never came. I'm a Squib._

_Ginny_

The letter was short, but she couldn't bear to write anything more than that, the whole situation was too depressing. Since she didn't feel like waiting for Draco's weekly letter, she went downstairs in the now empty house and tied the letter to Errol's leg and told him to take it to Malfoy Manor. This was the worst day of her life.


	3. Of Lunch With Old Friends

It had been a whole year since Ginny had been told by her mother that she was a Squib. In that year she had grown, her body was in that awkward stage between being a woman and a child. Her body had begun to lose some of its baby fat, but you could still see the softness of youth in her face. Her waist length red hair which had never been quite as bright as that of the rest of her family's, had darkened even farther into a rich shade of auburn that nicely complemented her chocolate brown eyes.

On this particular morning, Ginny was making her way downstairs for a meeting with Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This meeting would determine her future and she knew what she must do in order to turn the odds in her favor.

FLASHBACK

It had been a long, hot, depressing day, a day that should have been the happiest day of her life so far. Ginny had watched miserably that morning, as her brothers boarded the Hogwarts Express without her. Afterwards she went home and cried for hours because of how cruel fate was. She would never be able to go to Hogwarts, and she would never see her friends again… or so she thought. Late that night she received a letter from Draco telling her that she was in fact not a Squib; that the Sorting Hat had called out her name at the Sorting. He had also told her that he, Pansy, and Blaise had been sorted into Slytherin (of course) and that Ronald and THE Harry Potter (the boy who had defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named all those years ago) had been sorted into Gryffindor and appeared to be quite chummy. This letter gave Ginny cause to hope and at the same time confused her as to why her parents kept her out of school, so with new hope in her heart Ginny went to bed and slept the best that she had done since her mother told her that she was a Squib.

The next day Ginny was determined to confront her parents about lying to her. When she reached the doorway of the kitchen, she heard her parents, as well as an unfamiliar voice talking. Being the curious girl that she was, she decided to eavesdrop; she stood just outside the door to the kitchen and listened.

"Well, as much as I would like to say that I took time out of my busy day to see how you and Arthur are doing, Molly; I can't say that I did. I'm pretty sure that you two know why I am here." the unknown person stated.

"We know why Albus, but if you will just listen we have a very good reason for not sending her." Ginny's mum said.

"It had better be a very good reason. I don't take the fact that you did not send your daughter to school to learn how to control and use her magic very lightly."

"Albus, you know how powerful her magic is; you saw it for yourself when we had you examine her as a baby. The strength of her magic combined with the fact that a couple of years ago we caught her playing with a group of mini Death Eaters is the reason we didn't send her. We thought it would be best for her to stay home because if she went to Hogwarts and became friends with that crowd again they could use her strengths against us."

"Molly, I understand your concerns but I think it would be best to teach her how to control her magic. Besides, you know that I am aware of everything that happens in my school and I would not let her get into any bad situations."

"Alright…I trust you Albus, just please keep my little girl safe." Ginny heard her mum plead.

"No, Molly...it's not alright! I would rather her not be around those little miscreants. If it makes you feel any better, we will homeschool her. We can teach her anything she needs." Ginny heard her dad say.

"If that's how you want to do it Arthur, I'll let you give it a try…but let me warn you, I will be back to check on her progress before the start of term next fall. If she does not know what she should then I will personally see to it that she goes to Hogwarts."

"Albus, you win. We will teach her and if she is not performing up to par she can go to Hogwarts." Ginny's dad said sounding defeated.

"Well I'll be going then."

Ginny heard a chair scraping against the kitchen floor and started to hurry back up the stairs so she wouldn't be caught. Just as she was about to take the first step up the stairs, Albus Dumbledore walked through the doorway. He looked at Ginny with a twinkle in his eye, nodded his head and then made his way to the front door. Ginny watched through the window with wide eyes as he made his way down the dirt path from the house and apparated away.

END FLASHBACK

Ginny walked into the living room with her wand, which after not receiving her Hogwarts letter she never thought she would possess, in her hand. She had been so proud when her mum took her to Diagon Alley and bought it for her, she probably would have never gotten one if she didn't need it for her homeschooling.

Sitting on the old, beat up sofa was one Albus Dumbledore; he rose to greet her and then sat back down.

"Miss Weasley how nice to see you, I am here to see what you have learned so far. But first I would like to have a chat with you. How have you been this past year?"

"Well sir, I have been fine. It was awful quiet around here when everybody was still at school, and I often got lonely. It's been better now since everybody is back at home." She replied.

"I understand how you feel. Now, down to business, I know that you heard a certain conversation between your parents and I last year. That means that knowing twelve year olds like I do, I know that you would purposefully make me believe that your parents have taught you nothing so that you could to go to Hogwarts. So the question is; do we tell your parents that you failed and you could start Hogwarts as a first year. Or, do you show me what you can do and I send you to Hogwarts anyways but as a second year?"

"I would like to show you what I know Professor, but only if you promise to take me with you no matter the outcome."

"Okay Miss Weasley, show me what you can do then."

Over the next hour Ginny showed him all of the spells that she had mastered, and what she knew about each subject. When it came down to Potions she couldn't show him her actual potion work so she showed him some of her theory work.

When she was through, Dumbledore looked over his notes he had made and said "That was certainly impressive, it looks to me that you could start at second year in Transfiguration, Herbology, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. You are performing above second year in Charms, and Potions too if your theory work reflects your actual potion making."

"Well professor, are you going to let me go to Hogwarts?"

"Yes I believe so, let's go tell your parents." Albus replied, his eyes twinkling.

When the two walked into the kitchen they saw Ginny's parents sitting at the kitchen table. When they both had taken a seat, Albus turned to Ginny's parents and said "Molly, Arthur, I believe that it would be best if Ginevra were to go to Hogwarts. She is performing where she needs to be in most subjects, and above that in others."

"Albus, we had a deal. You said if she wasn't proficient then we would send her, but if not you would let her stay here" Arthur said.

"Yes I did say that, but I changed my mind. I think she would do better at Hogwarts where she could continue to progress. There is only so much she can learn from a book" Dumbledore replied.

"I refuse to let her go! Especially with what Ron went through this past year, I don't want my daughter in a dangerous environment. Besides, that Malfoy boy is there I do not want my daughter around that boy!" Arthur shouted.

"Calm down Arthur, Ronald was only got into the situation that he did because he is friends with Harry Potter, and on the subject of danger you know that Hogwarts is the safest place that she could be." Dumbledore stated calmly.

Ginny watched this all with amazement, she had never heard someone try to argue with her father like this. Her mum would sometimes put up a fight whenever her father treated her unfairly, but she had never seen someone tell him what was going to happen and what wasn't.

"Arthur, calm down. You know she is going to be a Gryffindor; her brothers will be able to watch after her. Albus will watch over her as well, you know he always puts his students' safety above everything else." Ginny's mum said in a soothing tone to her dad.

Ginny knew that her mum was trying to calm her father down before he blew his lid. He really did have an awful temper sometimes.

"Alright Albus, I'll let her go. But if I hear that she has put one toe out of line, there will be consequences." He said looking at Ginny on the last part.

"Well then, I guess I will be off, would you mind if I borrowed Ginevra for the afternoon? I was going to meet up with a few of the professors for lunch, and I thought it might be a good idea for her to meet them. We will be doing a little school shopping while we are out, my treat." Albus asked.

"Have her back by dinnertime." Arthur said.

Ginny got up and hugged her parents, before following Professor Dumbledore out of the kitchen

"Professor, if I may ask why are you taking me shopping?" Ginny asked while walking down the little dirt lane that led from her house.

"You may call me Albus in private Ginny. If I told you exactly what we were doing it would ruin the surprise. Now, take my arm we are going to apparate to Diagon Alley."

Ginny took his arm and was automatically enveloped in a feeling that was similar to what she supposed was like being sucked through a straw. When they landed outside of the alley, Albus took out his wand and tapped a certain brick that would open the alley. Ginny had seen her parents do this many times and was not surprised when it opened to reveal a bustling Diagon Alley.

"Now Ginny, I am going to take you to a restaurant to have lunch with some friends of mine before we go shopping for your school supplies. I want you to promise me that what happens today stays between us, you can tell nobody; I lied to your parents when I told them where we were going. You will hear things that a person your age should not know, and the only reason I am letting you be privy to the conversation that will happen is because I know that you are mature enough to listen. Also there will be a few students of mine there who are the children of the friends that I am meeting with, so please try to make friends" Albus explained, his eye twinkling at the mention of other children.

Ginny had no idea what exactly he was up to but agreed to tell no one of their lunch and to try to make friends. They walked down the busy street for a while until they entered a fancy looking restaurant by the name of _Casa di Zabini_. Upon entering Ginny realized by the decor that it was an Italian restaurant, being in such a fancy place made Ginny nervous. A waiter appeared and told them that everybody was waiting for them in the private room upstairs.

When Albus opened the door upstairs Ginny realized that her nervousness wasn't just because of being in a fancy restaurant it was also because she recognized the name. She hadn't even realized the relevance of the name until she had walked into that room and saw a blonde and two people with black hair standing in front of her grinning. When the faces of these three people registered to her she squealed and rushed to hug all three of them. She was finally with her friends again.

The four preteens caught up while waiting for their food to arrive, Ginny let her friends do most of the talking because her life at home had been dreadfully boring. The three were full of stories about how they along with their friends Vince and Greg had tortured Ronald and Harry Potter "the boy wonder" all year long, they had to tell these stories in whispers so Dumbledore wouldn't hear them bragging about it. Ginny told them the good news that she would finally be starting Hogwarts and that she would be in their year.

When lunch finally arrived the conversation was taken over by the adults. "Ginny, I bet you are wondering why we are having lunch with people that your parents clearly think are bad." Albus said.

"Now that you mention it, I was a little curious. I trust your judgment, and you were the one who told me to make friends. Since these three are my friends anyways, a fact of which I am now pretty sure that you already knew, I decided that we needed to catch up." Ginny replied.

"Yes, I did know that. The reason we are here though is because I have on good authority that Lord Voldemort is trying to make a comeback. Your friends' parents as I am pretty sure your parents have told you are Death Eaters, but they are no ordinary Death Eaters. Things have gone too far for them, they realized after he fell when trying to kill Harry Potter that they do not enjoy killing and they know that if he fully rises this time he will force their children into serving him when they are old enough. This is something that they definitely do not want happening." Albus explained.

"Albus, I still don't know why you are telling her this. She's young, she won't be of much help" Lucius Malfoy said.

"Ah but Lucius, there you are wrong. This girl may be young but keep in mind what family she comes from, she's already a very smart and powerful young lady; she will be of great help to our cause. Also, she will be the one to get the item you need to be rid of to Mr. Potter who will in turn give it to me. Besides, if she didn't hear what is said from us, your son and god children would surely have told her before long." Albus retorted.

"If I may ask sir, what is the item that I am supposed to give to Harry Potter? And what exactly did you mean by powerful?" Ginny questioned.

"Remember I asked you to call me Albus, Ginny. You are not only the seventh child of a seventh child, you are also the first female Weasley in seven generations, as you may know seven is a very powerful number in the magical world. The item that you are to give to Mr. Potter is a diary; you are by no means to write in it. You are to give it to him and tell him that you think that it should be given to me" Albus said.

"I understand Albus. I will do what you need me to." Ginny replied.

"Excellent. Now Lucius I understand that you and the other Death Eaters that have joined the Order are asking for something in return?" Albus questioned.

"As you have heard, Severus and I along with a few others have conducted some research and we have reached the conclusion that as the purebloods die out, our magic becomes weaker. I know this sounds bad, but this problem needs to be taken care of. However, we do not want to rectify this situation the same way that Voldemort does. We do not want to kill mudb-, excuse me muggleborns, we just want to try to increase the number of purebloods. So, we are suggesting that to give incentive to purebloods to marry and procreate, there will be a set amount of money given to the pureblooded couple for every child that they have. This will of course be funded by those of us who are well off, in addition to this, since we will be the ones funding said incentives we are not to receive the benefits because we are already well enough off and have as a tradition only married purebloods anyways. Also, we ask that pureblooded Hogwarts students be let out on certain weekends in the event that we have social functions; this would increase interactions between them. Those are our conditions along with the upholding of the ones already in place at Hogwarts concerning married pureblood students of Slytherin House, to which I would like to add that arrangements should be made for pureblood students of other houses who wish to marry, upon reaching their age of majority." Lucius explained.

"Also...if I may add," Narcissa interrupted "we need to start protecting our world from the muggles. They are bent on destroying themselves, lord only knows what would happen if they found out there are whole communities all over the world filled with magical people, they would try using our powers for themselves and then turning against us once they achieved their goals. I'm not saying that we shouldn't allow the muggleborns a right to a magical education…I just think that there should be more measures put into place regarding the Statute of Secrecy and such."

"You both make very good points," Albus admitted, I'll have to see what kind of an agreement that I can get out of the people on my end. But, right now Ginevra and I have some shopping to do. Let's go Ginny"

Ginny rose from her seat, hugged her friends goodbye, told their parents that it was nice to meet them and headed off with Albus to do her shopping. They went to the book stores and the apothecary, and he took her to the robe shop.

When they reached the door Albus stopped Ginny and said "Remember, say nothing about where we went and who we saw today. When your family goes school shopping make sure that you go with them and carry a purse, Lucius will slip the diary in your bag. Oh, and Ginny? Let's make it a surprise that you are starting your second year, I know I told your parents that you were performing on a second year level, but I think they believe that I will start you at first year. I do like causing mischief" Albus said with a twinkle in his eye at the last part.

After telling Albus that she would do as he said, Ginny told him goodnight and walked inside. After eating dinner with her parents and half-telling them the truth about how her day went, Ginny made her way up to bed.


	4. Getting Sorted

**Sorry it took so long for an update, I just started my third year of college and had to get back into the swing of things. I tried to keep in mind the reviews that I got about development when writing this chapter, I hope it is better than the first few chapters. I plan on going back and rewriting those in the future. As always, if you have any suggestions please do not hesitate to let me know! Oh yes, I own nothing, nor am I making any money off of this work of fanfiction!**

**This chapter has been rewritten!**

* * *

Ginny awoke the next morning to complete and utter chaos; the sound of her mother screaming from downstairs was what had initially interrupted her sleep. She decided that she would stay in her room and wait for everything to settle down; she definitely didn't want to be in the middle of that storm. While she waited she brushed her hair and got dressed for the day.

After Ginny had finished dressing she could still hear her mother screaming about punishments, she didn't know what her mother was angry about, but she was glad that for once it wasn't her fault. Since she still did not want to go downstairs and get caught up in everything she decided that packing her trunk would be the best idea being as she would be leaving for Hogwarts in three days. The first thing that got put in her trunk were her books, she did not want her family to see those because they were second year books and the family thought she was starting as a first year. Next she packed her weekend clothes and birthday presents, toiletries, her school robes, and lastly her school supplies. She left her wand out because she wanted to keep it with her at all times. It was a nice wand, made of holly with a swirling pattern carved into it and had a core of unicorn hair.

After she finished packing, she decided that it was safe to go downstairs for breakfast since she hadn't heard any yelling for quite some time. When she walked into the kitchen she noticed that the only available seat was beside Harry Potter.

'Wait, when did he get here?' she wondered as she took her seat, 'this is just great, they already think I have a crush on him, me sitting here will just add fuel to the fire'. While she was filling her plate Harry leaned in uncomfortably close to her and asked,

"Surprised to see me?"

"Yes… I didn't exactly expect to come to breakfast and see you sitting at the table" Ginny replied.

Just as Harry was about to say something, Ginny's mum looked at her and asked "Ginny, isn't it nice that Harry is here?"

Ginny swallowed the mouthful of toast that she was eating and said

"I guess, I didn't know we were expecting him", all the while thinking 'It would be even nicer if he knew the definition of personal space'.

"We weren't expecting him; your brothers took it upon themselves to steal that stupid magical car that your father insisted on keeping at the house to rescue him up from his uncle and aunt's house." Molly said while staring at Ron, and the twins with narrowed eyes.

"Oh" was all Ginny said. That explained all of the ruckus this morning.

After that the meal was eaten in silence, the only form of communication was Fred and George who were silently communicating in that way only twins could do. Ginny and Ron weren't ever close enough to do that, probably because as their mum had said, they had been fighting since they were in the womb. Once everybody had finished eating Ginny got up to help her mother clear the dishes.

"Ginny why don't you help Harry get settled in before we go shopping later this afternoon? Your brothers will help me with the dishes." her mum asked sweetly.

Ginny just nodded her head and left the kitchen with Harry following. She was deep in thought as they walked up the stairs. She really wished that her mum wouldn't meddle and try to set her up with Potter, (she had taken to calling him that in her head ever since she heard her friends call him that). She honestly didn't like the boy, he really irritated her…like what just happened at breakfast, he acted like he absolutely knew that she was head over heels for him, and he kind of gave her the creeps, the way he invaded her personal space this morning

"A knut for your thoughts" Potter said with a smile that Ginny automatically named in her head as the creeper smile.

"Oh, I was just thinking how excited I am for Hogwarts" Ginny lied.

"Yeah, I can't wait to get back either" Harry said.

They talked about various things while unpacking his things, including Quidditch and Hogwarts. Ginny didn't understand why he was unpacking being as he would just have to repack tomorrow so he would be ready for Hogwarts the next day. She had the idea that this was one of her mother's schemes to push them together. When they were finished unpacking they walked downstairs. The whole family was lounging around the living room waiting for them. Once Molly saw them she said,

"Oh good; I was just about to call you two down. We are about to go shopping, Ginny are you staying since you already have your things or do you want to come with us?"

Ginny really wanted to stay home, but she remembered the instructions given to her by Albus, if not for that she could have enjoyed a whole afternoon of peace and quiet. "I'll come, I don't really feel like staying by myself." she replied.

"Okay then, is everybody ready?" Molly asked as she began to pass around the floo powder.

* * *

Once everybody had stepped out of the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron they made their way to Gringotts to withdraw some money. After Gringotts, they made their way to Flourish and Blotts where they met up with Hermione Granger, Ron and Harry's muggleborn friend. This was the first time that Ginny had met the girl and she had already decided that she didn't like her. It wasn't that Hermione was unfriendly, it was the fact that she came off as a self-righteous know-it-all. She was bragging about what she had done with her family during the summer and the perfect scores she got on her exams. Ginny was all for someone being proud of their accomplishments, but she did not like people who would endlessly brag about them, that was the only reason she didn't take to her brother Percy all that well.

'Well just wait until she sees that I get to skip a year; that ought to take her down a peg' Ginny thought smugly.

While her family was fawning over Gilderoy Lockheart who was at the bookstore doing a book signing for the new textbook he wrote for Defense Against the Dark Arts which he also happened to be teaching, Ginny decided to look at other books. Before she could get very far she was drug into an aisle of books and before she knew what was going on, she was being hugged by someone who smelt very good. Once she was released she took a step back, and grinned because the person standing in front of her was none other than Draco Malfoy.

"Long time no see, eh Red?" Draco asked with a grin.

"Well if you call one day a long time, then yes it has been a long time Blondie." Ginny laughed. 'Oh lord is he flirting with me?' she asked herself.

"Son, what have I told you about public displays with someone other than your promised? And if you two are quite done, can we get down to business?" Lucius asked impatiently from behind Draco, Ginny hadn't even noticed him there.

"Well father, being as I do not officially have a promised yet, I do not see a problem." Draco said with a cheeky grin.

"Ginevra we need to be quick, put this in your bag, do not under any circumstances open it or write in it, and remember to give it to Potter once you get to school." Lucius handed Ginny a small black book.

"Yes sir, but may I ask why we are doing this?" Ginny questioned.

"I probably shouldn't tell you this, but since Draco seems to trust you I will. There is something that needs to be done concerning this diary, and only Potter can do it. Albus needed to get it to him in some way that wouldn't make it look like he was directly putting him in danger. He also needed someone unsuspicious and someone he could trust to do it which is where you come in, and the reason I am giving it to you is because it was already in my possession. Now, hurry and get back to your family before you are caught." Lucius said.

Ginny nodded her head and hugged Draco. Just as they were moving out of their embrace, Molly and Arthur walked up.

"What in the hell is going on here Ginevra?" Arthur roared.

Lucius moved in front of Ginny and Draco shielding them from the Weasleys. "What's the matter Arthur? Are you scared your precious little girl is going to be corrupted by the mean old Slytherins?" Lucius asked smirking in that way that only Malfoys can.

"You need to keep you little Death Eater spawn away from my daughter Malfoy, come on Ginevra its time to go home. You are in big trouble little lady, if I hadn't already promised Albus that we would be sending you to Hogwarts you would not be going!" Arthur bellowed.

Ginny slowly walked to her parents knowing that it would be worse if she didn't. Once she was standing beside them, she turned around and mouthed "I'll see you in a few days." to Draco.

Molly steered Ginny away from the Malfoys "Arthur, calm down, you're causing a scene. You stay here and finish shopping with the boys. I'm going to take Ginny home" she told her husband. She walked Ginny out of the store all the way to the Leaky Cauldron in silence.

Once they had flooed home, Molly released her hold on Ginny and walked away. Once she reached the threshold of the kitchen she said "Go up to your room, I'll send someone up with your food. I don't want to see you until it is time to leave for the train. You may only leave your room three times a day to use the bathroom. I want you to think about what you did by defying us, we told you that we did not want you associating with people like that and you didn't listen. Go on now, I don't want to look at you." Molly said, speaking the last sentence quietly.

Ginny nodded her head, and began to make her way to her bedroom. Once she got there she sat on her bed and thought about how much trouble she was in. It was pretty bad when her mother was quiet mad, Ginny knew it would take her a while to get over this one. She browsed her bookshelf for a book and read. She was interrupted by Percy who brought her dinner. He wouldn't even talk to her, she guessed that he heard what had happened and didn't approve of her friend either. Once she had finished eating she changed into her pajamas, took the diary out of her purse and put it in her trunk, and the lay down and went to sleep.

The morning of September 1st found Ginny in the shower; she was the one first up because she did not want to chance seeing one of her brothers in the hallway. While she was showering she thought about the previous day, it was dreadfully boring. Whenever one of her brothers brought her food they wouldn't even look at her, except Ron. He would open his mouth like he was about to say something, then he would close it and get red in the face. Ginny knew that out of all of her brothers Ron was the angriest because he hated Draco. Ginny wished Bill was at home, he would have talked to her. Hell, he probably wouldn't have even been mad at her; he was always the most accepting brother.

After showering, Ginny went back to her room and waited until Percy came up and told her it was time to go. So she grabbed her trunk, stuck her wand behind her ear and walked downstairs. When she walked into the living room everybody was lined up at the fireplace so that they could floo to platform 9 3/4. Ginny and her mum were the last to floo,

"You better behave while you are gone Ginevra, your brothers will be keeping an eye on you so you better not put one toe out of line. If you think you are going to associate with those people, then you have it wrong. Ronald has promised that he won't let you anywhere near them." her mum said before giving her a handful of floo powder.

Ginny didn't even reply she just threw the floo powder down, shouted the address and stepped through the flames. When she stepped out of the fire place she saw that it was time to board the train. She took her luggage and went to find a compartment. When she was halfway down the train, Ron appeared and told her to come with him to his compartment. Ginny reluctantly followed, this was going to be a long ride. When she entered the compartment she sat beside Neville Longbottom, she knew him because her mum was good friends with his Gran.

"So Ginny, are you ready to start classes?" Neville asked.

"Yes I am. I can't wait!" Ginny replied with a smile.

Ginny and Neville fell into a conversation about his toad Trevor. Ginny caught bits and pieces of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's conversation and couldn't help but roll her eyes at Hermione's statement about how she knew she would have top marks again this year.

After the tea trolley passed by and Ginny ate her snacks she decided she would go change into her robes. She told Ron where she was going and he looked at her and told her to not be gone long or he would go looking for her. As she walked down the train towards the loo, she looked in the window of every compartment hoping to see her friends, but she couldn't find them. When she reached the loo she began to change, she had just gotten her robe on when the door opened. Pansy walked through the door and grinned. She hugged her and said worriedly,

"Draco told us what happened, we weren't sure if you would be on the train. Do you want to come back to our compartment with me?"

"I would love to but Ron said he would come looking for me if I weren't back soon. I'm really sorry." Ginny replied.

"I understand, I will tell the boys that you are on the train. See you tonight, I'll save you a seat" Pansy said with a grin.

"Pans, you can't possibly know if I'm a Slytherin or not. But save me a seat just in case, I have to go now or Ron will come after me" Ginny said and then left the bathroom.

When she got back to the compartment, Ron looked up and asked suspiciously "What took you so long? We are almost at the station; it does not take 20 minutes to get dressed."

"I had problems with my tie Ron. Nobody ever taught me how to tie one. A seventh year helped me, I think she was a Hufflepuff ." Ginny lied, trying her best to look sincere.

"Okay then, just grab your things we're here. You'll need to go to the boats with the other first years. Just follow Hagrid, you can't miss him" Ron said gruffly.

When Ginny got off of the train, she noticed that sure enough a very tall man, who she knew had to be Hagrid was calling for the first years. She made her way over and boarded a boat with a small boy with dark hair and gray eyes.

"Hi, my names Liam Flint" the little boy said "What house do you think you are going to be in? I'm going to be in Slytherin like the rest of my family."

"I'm Ginny Weasley, it's nice to meet you Liam. I don't know where I will be put, my family are all Gryffindors but I'm kind of hoping for Slytherin." Ginny replied.

"A Weasley in Slytherin? Woah, I've never heard of that before. Why Slytherin? Aren't you supposed to think we're all evil or something?" Liam questioned.

"Well I'll tell you something that ought to answer both of your questions" Ginny grinned, "I have friends in Slytherin they befriended me even when they probably shouldn't have. They have helped through the aftermath of my parent's wrath of finding out that they were my friends. As I said before all of my brothers are in Gryffindor and they are not very pleasant to be around right now. So I would rather be somewhere that people actually want to be around me".

"Wow, sounds like a story, who are your friends?" Liam asked, curious about the bunch of Slytherins who had initially befriended this Weasley.

Before Ginny could answer they had reached the docks and were ushered inside Hogwarts castle. The first years were lined up alphabetically and led into the Great Hall where they listened to the Sorting Hat's song. Ginny looked into the sea of faces until they landed on the Slytherin table. Pansy caught her eye and blew her a kiss, while Draco and Blaise winked at her; Ginny couldn't help but giggle at the three of them. The sorting continued on and Ginny saw Liam get sorted into Slytherin.

'Well that will be one more person I'll know if I get sorted there' Ginny mused. She began to worry about how her family would react if she got sorted into Slytherin. She was so deep in thought that she almost missed her name being called.

"Weasley, Ginevra" called out Professor McGonnagal.

Ginny walked up to the stool and placed the ragged hat on her head.

'Hmmm…another Weasley. This should be easy' Ginny heard in her head.

Ginny was about to say something but the hat continued, 'There is something different about you though. I see the Gryffindor bravery, but I also see the Ravenclaw intelligence, the Hufflepuff loyalty, and the most surprising is the Slytherin cunning and the urge to prove yourself. You would do well in any house that I put you in, but there is one particular house that you will thrive in. I think I'll break tradition just this once'.

"Better be..." the whole of the Great Hall was silent; this was the longest any of them had ever seen a sorting take, "SLYTHERIN!"

Ginny rose from the stool, the whole hall was silent from the shock until the Slytherin table erupted into cheers. Ginny grinned and made her way down to her new house table, chancing a look at the Gryffindor table. Ron was red with fury, the twins were pale, and Percy was green, Ginny tried to ignore this as she took her seat in between Pansy and Draco. She was hugged by the two, and then by Blaise who leaned across Pansy to hug her.

"Fancy seeing you here, gave everybody quite a shock you did" Blaise smirked in between mouthfuls of food.

"Hush Blaise, she's where she belongs," Pansy grinned "we knew she would end up here".

"These are your friends?" Liam, who was sitting across the table asked in awe. This Weasley was friends with the heirs and heiress of four of the most powerful families in the Wizarding world, the Malfoys and Blacks, the Zabinis, and the Parkinsons.

"You two, know each other?" Draco asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah, we were on the same boat" Ginny said before taking a bite of pudding.

"Don't look now, but there is a group of angry Weasels, and Pottyboy are headed for us" Blaise said with a smirk, then somewhat confused "what in Merlin's name is that following them...a bush with legs?"

Even though Ginny knew that the situation was entirely serious and would more than likely turn out badly, she could help but giggle at his observation.

"I think that's Granger, although I'm not entirely sure." she said, maintaining a straight face.

Ron was the first to reach the Slytherin table, "Ginny, I don't know what you did to get that hat to put you in this horrible house, but you better get your ass up and go over to the Gryffindor table where you belong! I'll write mum and dad and get them to talk to Dumbledore about you being resorted tomorrow." He raged.

"I'm not going anywhere, Ronald! This is obviously where I belong and I won't have you or anyone else bullying me anymore!" Ginny yelled back, trying but failing to keep her calm. She felt Draco squeeze her hand under the table, showing her that he was there for her.

"I don't care what you want Ginny. I won't have my sister consorting with this bunch of dirty snakes! You're my sister and you'll do as I say, now get your ass up!" Ron yelled, turning purple in the process.

"Well you listen to me Ronald; I don't care what you want. The fact that I am your sister does not mean that you control me, so stop being a dictator! I am finally somewhere that people like me for who I am, you and our parents are a bunch of close minded fools! So like I said before, I am not going anywhere! So just go to hell!" Ginny yelled back. "And you three!" she yelled, pointing at the rest of her brothers, "If you just want to yell at me too, you can just go to hell with him!"

"We'll just see about you staying in this Gods forsaken house. Just wait until mum and dad find out, they'll pull you out of here so fast that you won't know what is going on. And you know what? I wish you really were a squib like mum and dad said you were last year. A squib for a sister is a lot better than a fucking slimy ass snake!"

By the time he was done the whole Slytherin table had rose up and were about to defend their house and their newest member. They didn't know much about her but if she was friends with Draco, Pansy, Blaise she had their respect and they would defend her.

Professor Dumbledore chose this as the moment to tell everyone it was time for bed as they had classes the next day. He had a feeling that he had just prevented a brawl of great proportions.

Ginny marched angrily down the hall with her friends toward the dungeons, she was still shaken by what Ron had said. She was worried that her parents would indeed take her out of Hogwarts, but deep down she knew Albus wouldn't let that happen. It really upset her that her family couldn't accept her for who she was.

When she walked through the secret doorway to the Slytherin common room she was awestruck. It was the most beautiful room she had ever seen. The floors were black marble, with the plushest white rug scattered about. Big comfortable looking black leather couches were settled around the room with mahogany end tables on either side that had table lamps with green lampshades on them. The windows showed a view of the Black Lake, with fish and Merpeople swimming by, and the ceilings had large crystals chandeliers. Ginnys favorite part of the room were the large marble fireplaces that were settled on either side of the vast room and had nice warm fires burning in the otherwise drafty dungeon.

"Come on Ginny, you will be seeing this room plenty in the next several years. Let's go to our dorm" Pansy said, amused.

Ginny followed Pansy to their dorm; as she did so, she listened to her friend explain how Slytherin was different from the other houses because there were only two to a dorm; according to Pansy they were also a lot nicer too since parents would often buy new furniture to keep their children in the lifestyle that they are accustomed to. When Ginny walked into their room she noticed that the decor was the same as in the common room, with a couch, end tables, and chandelier. There were also two large wardrobes, and two gigantic four poster beds that had green and silver sheets on them.

Ginny was tired so after unpacking her trunk, that she changed into her pajamas, told Pansy goodnight, and went to sleep excited and worried about what the next day would bring.


	5. First Days and House Meetings

**I want to thank everybody for their wonderful reviews! To the person who asked when we would see some affection between Draco and Ginny, and to whom I replied that it would take a little while; I may have lied just a little bit. Their relationship is developing a lot quicker than I thought it would. Anyways, I hope you all like this chapter! I own nothing!**

* * *

The next morning Ginny was startled out of her peaceful sleep by Pansy jumping on her bed yelling, "Wake up! Wake up! We have a big day ahead of us!"

"Leave me alone, 's too early" Ginny mumbled, still half asleep.

"No, you need to get up! Now! We have to be down for breakfast in an hour. Don't you want to take a shower?"

"Are you always so perky in the mornings?" Ginny groaned while sitting up. She was not a morning person.

"Pretty much!" Pansy grinned, "Oh come on! You'll get used to it. Now get your arse up before I drag you out of that bed and put you in the shower myself. Trust me, you don't want that."

"Okay, okay...I'm up, happy now?" Ginny drug herself out of bed and reached in her wardrobe grabbing her uniform and robe. Then she walked into in adjoining bathroom, undressed, and climbed into the shower.

The bathroom was beautiful, it had marble floors and countertops the same color as that in the common room; the walls were also white. The toilet had a soft gray cover on the lid, and there were double sinks with enough counter room and drawers for both her and Pansy's toiletries. The shower was a huge walk in with a frosted glass door and adjustable showerhead. Ginny briefly wondered if all of the houses had accommodations as lavish as those of Slytherin House. She didn't think so, because surely one of her brothers would have mentioned how nice Gryffindor tower was.

Ginny stepped out of the shower and toweled herself dry, then got dressed. When she was done she walked back into her bedroom to grab her brush so she could brush her hair. Pansy was sitting on her bed waiting for her, when Ginny entered the room, Pansy stood.

"Sit down and let me fix your hair and makeup." Pansy ordered.

"So bossy!" Ginny exclaimed sitting down, "I thought boss Ginny around day was yesterday considering the way Ronald was carrying on last night."

"How are you feeling about that? I know it must be hard on you having your whole family mad at you."

"I mostly feel angry at them for thinking that they can control me like that, I'm also kind of worried about mum and dad are going to do about me being in Slytherin. I know they are pissed; Ron had to have written them last night. There's probably a Howler with my name on it heading to the school right now."

"You do know that we're here for you right? No matter what, and not just Draco, Blaise and I. All of Slytherin house will stand by you. You're one of us now. We stick up for our own, in fact that's rule number one. We're not heartless bastards like everyone thinks we are."

"I know you three are here for me, as for the all of the Slytherins how do you know that they will be accepting of me...a Weasley?" Ginny asked quietly.

"Ginny, the minute that hat put you in Slytherin you became one of us. Your last name doesn't matter to us anymore. Besides, if Slytherin's golden boys are standing behind you how can they not accept you? Now come on we'll be late for breakfast." Pansy gently explained.

When the girls walked into the common room they saw Blaise and Draco waiting for them by the entrance to the common room. Ginny noticed something that she hadn't the night before, there were two staircases leading up to a balcony that wrapped all the way around the room.

"What do those stairs lead to?" she asked curiously "More dorms?"

"No actually that is the Slytherin private library. It is pretty useful when you are trying to write an essay and don't want to go to the library." Draco stated. "Now may we escort you lovely ladies to breakfast?" he asked with a wink, taking Ginny's arm in the crook of his own.

Ginny felt a sudden rush run through her body, Draco was flirting with her! She had to admit to herself, she liked it...a lot. As the group walked to the Great Hall for breakfast, Ginny wasn't paying attention to the conversation going on around her, she wondering if Draco actually liked her and what this could mean for their friendship. Her thoughts were interrupted when they walked into the Great Hall, there was so much noise that she couldn't hear herself think. She noticed that Professor Snape was at the Slytherin table handing out schedules. The group took their seats and filled up their plates while waiting for Snape to give them their schedules. Ginny had just finished eating when he approached them; she was the last to receive her schedule.

"Ah, Miss Weasley, quite a shock you gave me…gave all of us actually, when you were sorted last night. Albus has told me that you will be promoted to second year where you belong, he also told me how well you did on the potions part of your assessment. I am impressed; it will be refreshing to see a Weasley who actually knows what they are doing in my class for once. Welcome to Slytherin." Snape said while handing her the schedule. "Oh yes, I almost forgot, we will be having our mandatory house meeting tonight." he said addressing the group as a whole this time.

When Snape had walked back to the teacher's table, Ginny asked "House meeting? Why do we need one of those?"

"We have one at the beginning of every year to go over the rules and stuff." Draco explained.

"Oh, that totally makes sense….I'm so ditzy sometimes!" Ginny exclaimed.

She then looked at her schedule:

_Monday: Potions: 8:00-9:50 with Gryffindor Transfiguration: 10:00-10:50 with Ravenclaw Charms: 12:00-1:50 with Gryffindor History of Magic: 2:00-2:50 with Hufflepuff Herbology: 4:00-4:50 with Ravenclaw_

_Tuesday: Potions: 8:00-8:50 Transfiguration: 9:00-10:50 Charms: 12:00-12:50 History of Magic: 1:00-1:50 Herbology: 3:00-4:50_

_Wednesday: Potions: 8:00-9:50 Transfiguration: 10:00-10:50 Charms: 12:00-1:50 History of Magic: 2:00-2:50 Herbology: 4:00-4:50_

_Thursday: Potions: 8:00-8:50 Transfiguration: 9:00-10:50 Charms: 12:00-12:50 History of Magic: 1:00-1:50 Herbology: 3:00-4:50_

_Friday: Potions: 8:00-8:50 Transfiguration: 10:00-10:50 Charms: 12:00-12:50 History of Magic: 1:00-2:50 Herbology: 4:00-4:50_

_Note: Students will have ten minutes to get to and from classes. If a student is tardy, a detention may be given at the teacher's discretion. Lunch will be from 11:00-11:50 every day._

As Ginny looked up from her schedule, she saw her family owl Errol swoop in with a letter in his beak. Her stomach twisted into knots when he dropped the letter in front of her. She would have to read it on the way to Potions because breakfast was over. Following her friends to class, she opened her letter.

_Ginny,_

_I am writing this letter to let you know that while I am extremely disappointed that you were placed into Slytherin house, and that I am still not sure where we went wrong in raising you. Your father is very angry right now, we wrote to Professor Dumbledore asking that you be re-sorted as soon as Ronald wrote to us of your unfortunate placement. We received a reply to our letter almost immediately saying that there would be no resorting. He also wrote of a quarrel that you and Ronald had last night; I trust that you will stay out of fights with your brothers in the future. Stay out of trouble and stay away from that Malfoy boy._

_Your Mother_

And on a separate piece of paper:

_I wrote this second letter this morning, right after you father went to work. I did not want him to know exactly what I was writing to you, there is no need to make him even angrier and the contents of this letter would do exactly that. I would appreciate it if you did not mention what I wrote to any of your brothers (if you are even talking to any of them anymore), and if you do reply back please do so while your father is at work. There is so much that I want to tell you that would make my being so reasonable make sense, but now is not the time._

_Remember Ginny, you are my daughter and I love and accept you no matter what, even if I can't show it at times. Your sorting didn't shock me as much as it did your father I knew that this would happen, I will save the explanation of how I knew for another time. I know that it must come as a surprise to you that I am not as angry at you as it would seem, being that I have been so strict with you the past few years. Your father is the angry one; I am just worried about my only daughter. Your father is talking of pulling you out of school, but honestly we have no grounds to do so._

_My word of advice to you is to not cause any trouble and to not give your brothers reason to write home about your behavior. I know they will be writing about your friends, I do understand that they are your friends and that without them your life as a Slytherin would otherwise be horrible; your father on the other hand does not understand at all. My final word of advice to you is, be careful around your friends, I know that you trust them, but just please be cautious._

_Mum_

_P.S. Try not to worry too much about your daddy being angry sweetheart, you know how he likes to control things. He's just worried about you and worries that your being in Slytherin will turn you to the wrong side._

'Well that was completely unexpected; I figured she would be just as mad as daddy. I wonder what it is that she wants to tell me.' Ginny mused.

Ginny didn't need her mother's explanation to know why her father was mad; he felt that he was losing some of his control over her. The one thing that her father had to have was control, he thought he owned his wife and children, he dictated what they did and punished them as he saw fit. That was the one pureblood quality that the Weasleys still held on to. Her father always went easier on the boys than Ginny. Ginny's brothers, mainly Ron also thought that they could control her too. Her mother's letter made one thing clear to Ginny, the reason her mother was so often harsh with her was because she was trying to protect her. She must have thought that being harsh would make Ginny more likely to listen and not repeat her mistakes. She also knew that her mother took to issuing most of her punishments so that her father wouldn't. She remembered back to the day that they had went shopping and the incident at Flourish and Blotts. Her mother had told her once they got back home that she didn't want to look at her; Ginny now realized that it was because she was angry that Ginny had managed to get herself in trouble again, not because she was disgusted with her. Ginny knew that father did love her deep down, once you got past the control issues; she worried now that if she continued down the path that she was going if that would always be the case. Ginny honestly didn't know if he could get over his prejudices.

The group of Slytherins were the first students in the Potions classroom. They all sat at a table towards the front and Ginny told them about what her mother had wrote to her. The class began to fill, and the Gryffindor Trio was the last to enter.

"Ginny?"

It was Ron. Ginny turned around and looked at him. He was gaping like a fish out of water; Ginny could practically see the cogs turning in his head trying to come up with something to say.

"Yes Ronald?" Ginny innocently asked.

"Umm, Ginny this is second year Potions. I think you're in the wrong place." it was Hermione who spoke this time.

"I'm very much aware as to what year Potions this is, and I'm also quite sure that I am where I am supposed to be right now Granger. Why don't you three just mind your own business?"

"Ginny go to your class right now, this isn't funny anymore." Ron said, walking over and grabbing her arm roughly.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Weasley." Draco and Blaise said at the same time.

"He can do whatever he likes with her, she's his sister." Harry piped up.

"Stay out of this Potter. Now, Weasley I thought I told you to let her go." Draco said with menace.

"Fuck off Malfoy! This is my sister and she will do as I say."

"Actually as I am her Head of House, as well as the teacher of this class, I believe she will do as I say, as will you. Release her now and take your seat, you may also sit Miss Weasley." Snape said from the doorway, he had just walked in.

He walked further into the classroom, his robes billowing out dramatically behind him. Once he reached the front he spoke again.

"Now I'm not quite sure what I just walked in on, but it will not have it in my classroom again. Weasley, Potter, and Granger you were out of your seat when I walked in, you should all know this from last year. Ten points from Gryffindor. Mr. Weasley you will lose another ten points for preventing Ms. Weasley from being in her seat when class started. Draco, you will receive ten points for standing up for your housemate, you know my feeling of house loyalty."

"You can't take that many points! It's not fair!" Ron said in outrage.

"I believe that I can Mr. Weasley, and you know what? I think I will take ten more for challenging the teacher. Oh, I just remembered, you will be serving detention with Filch tonight for your use of foul language. Actually make that a week, for putting your hands on a woman, I will not tolerate that." Snape said with a sneer.

"Professor I think that what Ron was trying to say is that punishing us isn't fair because we were just trying to let Ginny know that she is in the wrong class." Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"Well Ms. Granger, I believe that you were wrong, she is exactly where she needs to be." Snape replied.

"But Professor, how can that be? This is second year Potions; she's only a first year."

"Not that it is any of your business Ms. Granger, I will tell you anyways so that you will stop asking questions and we can start class. Ms. Weasley isn't a first year, she is a second year. She was promoted to where she would have been had she not been held out of school for a year, she knew the required material, so here she is. Now that question time is over, everyone turn to page three hundred ninety four, you will be doing a sleeping draught as a bit of a review from last year. You will work in groups of two." Snape drawled.

"Want to be partners?" Draco asked Ginny.

Before answering, Ginny looked over at Pansy to make sure that she didn't want to be her partners with her too. Pansy had an eyebrow raised, she must have heard Draco's question; Pansy quickly shook her head as answer to Ginny's silent question then pointed at Blaise indicating that they would be partners.

Ginny turned back to Draco and smiled, "Sure! I'll go get the ingredients." she said getting up.

Ginny walked over to the potions cabinet and began to gather the items that were on the ingredient list. Just when she was almost done collecting the items, Harry walked up.

"Ginny, what are you doing hanging out with those pricks? They are a bad influence on you; and you should really listen to Ron. He knows what's best for you." he brushed his hand unnecessarily against hers while reaching for an ingredient.

Ginny who had just remembered Albus' instructions for her to give Potter the diary, knew that she had to keep her cool right now in order to be able to do just that. She couldn't burn her bridges with him just yet, much as she wanted to. He made her so uncomfortable; she wanted to tell him exactly what she thought about him… and his unwanted advice. Instead she said,

"I know Ron means well, he really does, he just needs to butt out and let me run my life. He is making everything out to be worse than it is. Oh, and Harry? There's a favor I need from you. I found a strange diary on the train; I'll bring it to class tomorrow. I think you should let Dumbledore have it so that he can examine it. I would do it myself, but I think you should be the one to give it to him; you already have a good relationship with him. I think that he would start to question whether or not I should be at Hogwarts if I just traipse into his office the first week with a strange object."

"I don't see what could be so strange about a diary that you should have Dumbledore take a look at it, but sure I'll do it." Harry said, thinking that he was humoring her. In reality he was unknowingly setting into motion a plan that had been carefully planned two months ago; a plan to that would eventually stop the very same wizard who had turned his life around when he was just an infant.

"I knew I could count on you Harry. I need to get back or my potion won't me finished in time'" Ginny said trying her best to sound sincere.

When Ginny sat back down at the table with her friends, she noticed that Pansy and Blaise had already started on their potion.

"Took you long enough Red, was everything okay over there?" Draco asked his voice low and a worried look on his face.

Ginny lowered her voice and replied "Everything's fine, I just had to carry out my instructions from Dumbledore. You know…the ones that he gave me at lunch that day?"

"Yeah, I remember. I was just worried that Potter wasn't playing nice over there. I was about to come to your rescue." he said seriously.

"Listen here Blondie. I am not some damsel in distress that needs rescuing. I grew up with six brothers; I can most certainly hold my own." Ginny said with a smirk, chopping some beetle wings in the process.

"I just don't want to see you hurt Red." Draco said with an almost invisible hint of a blush, adding at the last second "You know, because you're my friend and all."

"I know you care Draco, I don't know what I would do without your friendship, or that of Pansy and Blaise either."

After that they worked peacefully until their potion was complete. When they had finished, they bottled a sample of their potion and handed it in to Snape. He told them that they could leave after they had finished cleaning up, and to remember their meeting tonight. Ginny and Draco worked rather fast on cleaning up their station, they had twenty minutes of. When they walked out of the door to the Potions room they noticed Pansy and Blaise waiting for them. As they set off towards the Transfiguration classroom Pansy spoke.

"I don't know who Weasley thinks he is talking to Ginny like that, but he better back off. From what I heard when gathering ingredients you two won't be the only Slytherin males to jump on his ass if he messes with her again. From what Daphne and Millicent said, Theo, Vince, and Greg aren't very happy with what happened today. Nor will the older boys be when they hear of it. I know that putting your hands on and degrading women is a very touchy subject with you boys."

"I thought that all pureblood wizards thought that they basically owned women and could do with them as they pleased. That's what my Aunt Muriel said when she was explaining to me why my brothers and father act the way they do. She said that is the only Pureblood value that the Weasley family has held on to." Ginny said.

"Oh, we do believe that we own our women, and we do own them, in the sense that they are ours to protect and guide, not to control. But your father must have forgotten this; he must have also forgotten to pass down the most important rule to that dimwitted brother of yours. That rule is one every Pureblood wizard learns from the cradle to never hit or degrade a woman. We are told that if a woman under your protection displeases you simply tell them that they have displeased you and explain to them what they did wrong." Draco explained, and then added wryly "Father always told me that when I got married, that if my wife continued to do things that I thought she shouldn't do, just to cut off her spending money until she apologized or rectified her mistake. He said it worked on mother every time."

"Oh, Draco, hush! That's not funny, but I could totally see Lucius doing that!" Pansy laughed, inwardly shuddering at the thought of her money being cut off even just for a little while, then adding "Father just tells me and mother not to do whatever we did again. We usually listen because he is right most of the time and he never asks anything unreasonable of us. Besides, neither one of us are as headstrong as 'Cissa, but of course mother says that your mum has always been like that. Pushing the limits just because she can, I guess it's because she knows Lucius can't say no to her for too long."

"I thought it was a sound piece of advice. I've seen it work, and so have you Pansy. Do you remember when this past summer when my mother was being extra nice to my father? Well that is a good example; he had cut off her money because she let me into his potions lab when he specifically told her not to when I was grounded. I still feel bad for the argument that I caused, but if that isn't a good way to handle things on his part I don't know what is. Pansy you know as well as I do that father has a soft spot for mother, all she has to do is bat her eyelashes at him and her wish is his command." Draco finished as they entered the Transfiguration classroom.

Ginny contemplated this as the classroom filled up, was her parent's relationship like that? Of course she had never seen her father hit her mother, but he was awful harsh with her sometimes, mainly where Ginny was concerned. She knew her parents did love each other, but she also knew now that her mother didn't necessarily hold the same views that her father did. Her father had never hit her either, but he was often mean when she didn't do what he said. Out of all of her brothers, Ron was the only one who had put his hands on her. She wondered how different her life would be if her father wasn't as strict on her.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

The rest of the day passed peacefully, the only negativity was Ron and Hermione, the latter who seemed to be jealous that Ginny got to skip a year, shooting her glares in Charms. There were a few questions in from her classmates in other houses about how she got to skip a year, but nobody seemed to object like the Gryffindors had.

When dinner ended the Slytherins as a house, walked down to the dungeons for their house meeting. Upon arriving in the common room, everybody set to work arranging the couches and chairs in a neat circle so that everybody could hear Severus, in private he told them, since most everybody knew him from outside of school that they could call him by his first name. Draco was the only exception, in private Severus was Uncle Sev; as he was his godfather.

Ginny, Draco, Pansy, and Blaise all sat on the same couch. When Severus entered he immediately called order to the meeting. He began by explaining to all of the first years (and Ginny), that as Slytherins they needed to show house pride to set themselves apart from the rest of the school, he explained that the parents had set aside a separate fund for the Slytherins to do exactly that. Part of the money was used to get Slytherin apparel made that they could wear on weekends, or during school breaks. There were also banners that every student got upon entering their first year. He told them that everything would be in at the end of the week, and that even if they chose not to wear their apparel on the weekends, that he expected it to be worn at Quidditch games.

Next he explained to everyone the rules, all of the older students knew most of the rules, but they listened anyways out of respect to Severus, plus he sometimes added new rules.

"This first and most important rule of Slytherin house is to stick up for each other, your housemates are your family and I expect you to treat them as such. We must present a united front to this school to show them what house loyalty is supposed to look like. Second rule, work hard. I do not like to be embarrassed in front of my colleagues. I will not have everybody saying that there are a bunch of morons in my house. Third rule, do not skip house meetings, if a house meeting is called it is important and you should be here. Anybody caught skipping a meeting will scrub every one of my potions labs clean the Muggle way. Does everybody understand those rules?"

Every person in the common room nodded.

"Good, I'll continue. Fourth rule, don't get caught. I know you all like to cross boundaries and taunt people every now and again, just please, don't get caught. I don't like to fill out paperwork, plus it makes me look bad. Fifth rule; keep your parties quiet, I do not wish to hear of them. And I really don't want the other heads knowing that I allow you to have parties, it would ruin my reputation and make me look bad. Also, if you have alcohol, which I also do not want to hear about, please be responsible about it. And do not give the first years any, they are way too young. I really don't want the second years being given alcohol either, but I know from experience that this bunch can be very persuasive. So if they are given alcohol, I will personally hold the seventh years responsible for making sure that they do not overdo it. Now if everybody understands these rules I will move on to other matters of business."

"Uncle Sev, excuse me for interrupting, but you forgot one." Draco said smirking.

"Ah yes, as Draco has so kindly pointed out there is one last rule. Rule number six, which is almost as important as rule number one...If Snape isn't happy nobody's happy. Got that?" Severus said with a grin that very few people who were not Slytherins had ever seen.

Everybody nodded while grinning.

"Okay last order of business, your new Quidditch Captain, Marcus Flint, has told me that tryouts will be held this weekend. The open spots are both of the beater positions, the keeper position, the seeker position, and one chaser position. I expect my team, whoever is on it, to win the Quidditch Cup this year; it was disappointing to see it go to Minerva last year. I expect it to be in my office next year, where it belongs. I also expect us to win the House Cup this year; I believe that Gryffindor is already in the negative because of an incident that happened in my second year potions class this morning. This brings up my last order of business. In case you have not heard, Ginevra's brother is not very happy with her at the moment. He put his hands on her this morning, which is unacceptable; I do not want it happening again. Vincent, Gregory, I want you to start walking to class with Ginevra. I know that Draco and Blaise are with her most of the time, but Weasley will be less likely to try anything with you two around. Understood?"

Vince and Greg replied "Yes".

When Ginny and Pansy got up to go back to their dorm, Draco stood as well.

"Goodnight Ginny, you too Pansy." he said with a smile.

"'Night Draco" both girls smiled back, adding "You too Blaise".

When the girls got in their room Pansy closed the door and turned around to face Ginny.

"He likes you, I can tell. I've never seen him act like this before." she smirked.

"Who… Draco? He's just being friendly. He doesn't like me." Ginny denied.

"He does too! I saw him wink at you this morning, and the way he calls you Red is a giveaway, he's obviously flirting. Plus he asked you to be his partner; he would have usually asked Blaise. They always left me to find another partner when there could just be two to a group. Plus, he was acting more protective than is the norm. The question is… do you like him?"

"Of course I do Pansy, what's not to like? He's cute, sweet, and funny. I just don't think he likes me." Ginny replied with a groan while getting into her pajamas and climbing into bed.

"Well it's simple, I'll ask him. I'm going to talk to him tomorrow on the way to breakfast. I'll tell him that I need to talk to him about something important." Pansy said with a mischievous gleam in her eye, she loved matchmaking, this was even better because it was her two best friends. Pansy also had an ulterior motive behind it, not that she would let Ginny or Draco know about it until her plan was complete.

"You do that Pansy. I'm going to bed; it's been a long day. Goodnight." Ginny yawned sleepily.

"Goodnight Ginny" Pansy said from underneath her covers, still going over her plan in her head.

**I think this is my best chapter yet! What do you think? Please review and let me know!**


	6. Fights and First Kisses

**Sorry for the delay in updating, I've had a lot going on in the past couple of weeks. I'm going to try to start updating every week again, but can't make any promises. Sorry if this chapter sucks, considering that I got stuck in the middle of it and kind of forced the whole thing, it more than likely does. As always, please review and tell me how you like it. I own nothing!**

* * *

Ginny felt like there were butterflies in her stomach, she and Pansy had just entered the common room and were waiting on the boys to arrive so that they could all go to breakfast together. Soon, Pansy would be talking to Draco about whether he liked her or not and Ginny was very nervous about that.

"You two aren't at breakfast yet? The world must have ended!" Pansy teased Vince and Greg who were sitting on one of the couches closest to the entrance to the common room.

"We would be there already, but we're on guard duty remember?" Greg pouted.

"Oh, yes! I must have forgotten, go get Draco and Blaise and we can go." Pansy replied.

The boys got up and hurriedly headed down the steps that led to the boy's dorms, Vince and Greg were anxious to get to breakfast. They were usually the first ones in the Great Hall and the last ones to leave for every meal.

"Can we go now?" Vince and Greg had come back, with Draco and Blaise in tow. They hadn't been gone for five minutes.

"Yes we can, Gods forbid you two miss fifteen minutes of breakfast. We still have about thirty minutes until class starts." Pansy said. As the group made their way out of the common room, she spoke again "Draco, can I talk to you privately for a minute?"

Ginny's stomach dropped even further, this was it; Pansy was really going to talk to him. She hoped that Pansy was right and he really he liked her too.

"Sure Pansy." Draco replied falling back in step with Pansy.

Ginny and the others continued walking so that the two could have some privacy.

"What do you think that's about?" Blaise asked, worriedly glancing back at Draco and Pansy.

"I have no idea Blaise", Ginny lied. She couldn't help but thinking about the way he was looking at them, like a kid whose candy had been taken away. 'Hmmm, I think Blaise has a crush of his own' she mused.

Meanwhile, back where Pansy and Draco were, a very important conversation was taking place.

"I've seen the way you have been looking at her Draco." she began.

"Pansy, just please don't be mad at me. I really like her; I really can't help the way I feel. I know that you and I are supposed to be promised this summer, that's why I haven't really acted on it. I've been trying not to show that I like her, but it's just so hard! I feel like some sort of connection was built when we were writing letters back and forth for those few years. She so sweet, and funny, and pretty...gods is she pretty-"

"Draco, stop it! I didn't want to talk to you because I'm mad; I wanted to tell you something."

"You're not mad?" Draco asked; his curiosity piqued.

"Drake you know me, it would be very obvious if I were mad. Now I've needed to tell you something for a while now. Blaise and I, we're dating, we have been since the week you were visiting your aunt and cousins in France during summer holidays. We never told you because we were waiting for you to find someone else, we had an agreement that if you hadn't gotten yourself a girlfriend by the end of the school year that we would end things so that I could honor the agreement that our parents have made. You and I both know we wouldn't have been happy together, we've been fighting since we were in the crib." Pansy blurted.

"Pansy, I've always known that our parents were making a mistake trying to push us together. As happy as I am for the two of you, what does this have to do with me liking Ginny?"

"Drake, she likes you too!"

"No, she doesn't, why would she like me?"

"Honey, what girl wouldn't like you? You're sweet and charming, and practically every girl here is drooling over you. Well except for me, you're unfortunately a little bit too fair for me. Just talk to her, tell her how you feel. I am one hundred percent sure that she likes you too."

"You're sure about this?"

"Yes, would I tell you to do something like this if I wasn't sure that it would end in your favor?" Pansy rolled her eyes.

"Well when you put it like that, I'll do it. I just need to figure out when. Oh, and Pansy? Next time you and Blaise decide to keep secrets from me, just don't, it doesn't work. I knew something was going on between the two of you the minute I saw you when came back from France." Draco grinned.

"Drake...why didn't you tell us that you knew? It would have made things easier on us." Pansy whined.

"Well that wouldn't have been as fun, now would it?" Draco smirked.

They had finally caught up to the rest of the group who were waiting for them at the entrance to the Great Hall. Pansy walked up Blaise, whispered something in his ear then kissed him on the cheek.

"I knew it! I knew there was something going on with you two, especially by the way you were whispering in Potions and practically sitting on top of each other at lunch yesterday!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Yeah well, we were kind of trying to keep it a secret for a little while. That obviously didn't work too well if what Pansy just told me is anything to go by." Blaise chuckled as they entered the Great Hall.

After breakfast the group made their way to Potions. When they arrived they noticed that the Golden Trio was already there. Ginny walked over to the Gryffindors while her friends took their seats.

"Um, Harry... I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute." Ginny said. Honestly, she was nervous to be in such a close proximity to her volatile brother. One never knew when Ron would blow up.

"Sure Gin, go ahead."

"Well I kind of wanted to talk to you in private."

Ron was about to open his mouth to say something, but Harry leaned over and whispered something in his ear and grinned, whatever was said made Ron happy because he grinned too. Harry then got up and followed Ginny out into the hall.

"Here's the diary, just be careful with it. I don't know exactly what it does, but I get a strange feeling whenever I'm touching it." Ginny said.

"I'll bring it to Dumbledore." Harry assured her.

"I really appreciate this Harry." she smiled, turning to leave.

"Gin...I was wondering, would you like to eat lunch with us at the Gryffindor table today? Your brothers really miss you." Harry stopped her before she could walk away.

"Harry, I really shouldn't. Gryffindors and Slytherins really don't mix, and the way things are with me and my brothers, it just really isn't a good idea."

"Well maybe we could all get together this weekend, maybe on Saturday. The Slytherins are holding tryouts, I'm sure your friends will be trying out this year, so that would be an opportunity for you to get away from them for a bit. I think this would give you a chance to try and smooth things over with your brothers. Just please think about it." Harry pleaded.

Ginny worked hard to control her anger, she hated it when people just assumed things; like Harry just assuming that she wouldn't want to try out for Quidditch, he knew from this summer how much she enjoyed playing.

"I'm not the one who needs to smooth things over, I did nothing wrong. I just don't think that they realize that, and the only way things can get better is if they do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my seat before Professor Snape arrives." Ginny turned and walked away.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Ginny walked into the Great Hall alone, she had been in the Owlery sending off a letter that she had wrote her brother Bill during Transfiguration. Pansy had offered to come with her, but Ginny told her to go ahead to lunch with the boys. She needed some time to herself to think things over, like her new feelings for Draco and also how it seemed like her whole family were turning against her. Another things she needed to think about was her mother's letter, she had to admit that she was curious about the things her mum had said she needed to tell her.

As she made her way to the Slytherin table, she was stopped by the elder set of twins in her family. "Ginny, why don't you come sit with us today?" Fred asked with a devilish grin on his face.

"Yeah, it will give you a chance to get away from the snakes; I don't know how you can stand to be around them all the time." George added with the same look on his face.

"Those 'snakes' happen to be my friends, thank you very much. And in case you haven't noticed, I'm one too. So I would appreciate it if you would show some respect. Now I'm hungry, and I don't want my lunch to be spoiled by Ron's atrocious table manners, so I'm going to have to decline your invitation." Ginny huffed.

"Not so fast Ginny, we're getting sick and tired of your attitude. You walk around here with your nose stuck in the air like you better than us, you've changed and we don't like it. Harry told us that you declined his invitation to have lunch with us today, which was very rude. So let me rephrase my previous statement, I'm not asking this time. You are going to have lunch with us." George said.

"I may be your sister George, but that doesn't mean you can tell me what to do. I'm my own person, so if you will excuse me I'm going to MY table, with MY friends to eat." Ginny ground out.

"I don't think so Gin, you're eating with us and that's final." Fred said grabbing her arm roughly.

Ginny looked towards the Slytherin table, all eyes were on her. Blaise and Pansy looked worried, and Draco was angrily saying something to Vince and Greg while pointing towards her. Ginny felt herself being marched toward the Gryffindor table, she was about to start struggling when a large shadow that was Vince and Greg loomed over them.

"I don't think that Ginevra wants to go with you." Greg said with malice; Vince leering at the twins menacingly behind him.

By now Ron, Potter and Granger had joined them. "I think she'll go where we tell her to go." Ron said, matter-of-factly.

"Well we think differently, she's able to make her own decisions you know. It looks to me that she doesn't want to go." Vince snarled back then turned to Ginny and politely asked, "You don't do you?"

Ginny shook her head "No". She didn't know why she couldn't go one day without some sort of confrontation with her brothers.

"This is between Ginny and her brothers. So why don't you go back to your table, she doesn't need bodyguards." Harry chimed in.

Vince and Greg just stood there with their arms crossed, looking at him pointedly silently conveying that they were not going anywhere without Ginny.

"What are you deaf as well as stupid? He said to go away you big oafs." it was Granger this time.

Hearing Granger insult her friends ignited a fuse in Ginny. Next thing she knew she had jumped on Granger, toppling on the floor in the process and ended up on top of her punching her repeatedly. Ron, Harry and the twins were trying to pull her off but she would just wiggle out of their grasp whenever they got a hand on her. Granger began to fight back and yanked on Ginny's hair, stilling her just long enough to get a punch in. Ginny had her arm cocked back to punch her again, when she was pulled off. She quickly turned around and was about to punch whoever had pulled her off but she realized that it was Draco. She spun back around to survey the damage that she had done to Granger.

Granger was a bloody mess, her nose was broken, her right eye was swollen shut, and she had a busted lip. After examining Granger, Ginny looked around the Great Hall; everybody was staring. Professors Snape and McGonagall were standing by.

"What in the world is this all about?!" McGonagall screeched.

"Look what did to me Professor! She's crazy; she attacked me for no reason." Granger exclaimed.

Ginny struggled against Draco so that she could go at her again, yelling "That's what you get you stupid bitch. You think you're better than everyone just because you're supposedly so smart. You must not be too smart though, if you think that I that I jumped on you unprovoked. I wasn't just going to stand there and let you insult my friends like that." Ginny said with the trademark Slytherin sneer.

"Look at you Ginny, you've changed so much, and it's their fault." Ron said pointing at the Slytherins, "they're turning you against your family, and you're being a bitch. 'Moine did nothing to you, and yet you jump on her like a crazy person. If this is how you're going to act I don't blame mum and dad for lying to you about being a Squib to keep you out of school."

Ginny struggled against Draco in order to get to Ron this time, she was so mad that she was shaking, and there were angry tears running down her face. Draco just turned her around towards him and pulled her closer. He then wiped her tears away with his thumbs and whispered in her ear "Shhh...It's okay; don't let him get to you."

Dumbledore, who had walked up during Ron's rant asked, "Why don't we take this somewhere more private to get this all sorted out? We can go to my office."

Albus noticed that Draco kept his arm around Ginny during the trip to his office; he needed to have a talk with Severus about that later. Once outside his office, he spoke the password and the group entered.

"Please take a seat", Albus said, pointing to the numerous chairs that he had just conjured up. Once everyone was seated he asked, "Now, what is the meaning of this? I do not like to see my students fighting, especially during the middle of lunch for everyone to see."

"Professor, we were just trying to get Ginny to eat lunch with us, then these two walked up and told her that she wasn't allowed to eat with us." Ron said pointing to Vince and Greg.

"What it looked like to me Albus, was that they were trying to force Ginevra to eat with them, Vincent and Gregory were just trying to help her get away. They were there on my orders to protect Ginevra; I won't have one of my students harassed or forced to do something that they don't want to." Snape explained.

"Is this true Ginevra?" Albus asked.

"Yes sir. I told them I didn't want to eat with them and they tried to force me, then Vince and Greg came and tried to get them to let me go. Then Granger insulted them and I snapped, I know I probably could have handled myself better and accept any punishment given to me."

"Very well then, Ginevra you will have detention with me for a week, as well as fifty points taken from Slytherin. There will also be fifty points taken from Gryffindor ten each from the three Weasleys, Mr. Potter, and Miss Granger."

"Albus, I don't think that a week of detention is enough, this was a fight, which certainly this calls for a more severe punishment." McGonagall admonished.

"How very right you are Minerva. All students involved in this altercation have detention with Professor Snape for a week. Miss Weasley your detentions with me can be held after your detentions with Severus are finished."

"Albus, you know that's not what I meant. Miss Granger is the victim here, and Mr. Potter and the Weasley boys didn't do anything wrong." McGonagall said in outrage.

"But Minerva, your students are not completely innocent; if the Weasely twins wouldn't have harassed Miss Weasley, this fight might not have ever started. So my punishments stand." Albus said with finality, and then looking over at the students "You all are dismissed from classes for the day; Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley please escort Miss Granger to the hospital wing. Severus, please stay I need to have a word with you."

Once the students had left the office, Ron looked at Ginny and said "This isn't over Ginny. You may have gotten out of it this time, but you are going to start obeying us."

Ginny just rolled her eyes at him and continued walking towards the dungeons with her friends. Once they got to the common room the all sat on couches in front of the fireplace on the far side of the room.

"So...we get the rest of the day off classes, thanks Red!" Draco said with a wink.

"No problem Blondie, anytime." Ginny smiled back, she was squealing with joy on the inside. He was flirting with her again! Ginny then fell into a conversation with Pansy about the latest Witch Weekly, but they were soon interrupted by the boys asking if they were going to watch them at Quidditch tryouts on Saturday.

"Well actually..." Ginny began, "that's something I have been meaning to bring up. I was thinking about trying out for the Chaser position, and was wondering what you all thought about that."

"Umm Red, I don't know how to say this, but there aren't any girls on the team, there hasn't been for over twenty years." Draco explained.

"Yeah, the last girl that played on the Slytherin team was Aunt 'Cissa, actually now that I think about it she was the only girl to ever play on the team." Blaise added.

Ginny was reeling from this information, there had only been one girl on the Slytherin team in its entirety? "So let me get this straight, your mum has been the only girl to ever play on the team? Why?" she asked Draco.

"Well, not very many of the Slytherin girls were interested in Quidditch, and the ones who were couldn't play very well. When mum entered her second year, the captain wouldn't even give her a chance to try out. When my father became captain during their fifth year, they weren't dating then but were good friends, he gave her a chance. She was the house keeper for two years; in fact, she was the best keeper in house history. It's a shame that all of the captains since father haven't even let the girls try out, most of them say that what mother did was a fluke and no girl could ever do as well on this team as she did. I personally think that they are scared of getting showed up by a girl. I believe it would be good to change things up a bit, so I'm going to try to persuade Flint to let you try out, if it means that much to you and this is what you really want." Draco explained.

"If you think it will work, go ahead. I just want a fair chance; I believe that with a good broom I could be pretty decent."

"I don't know about you guys, but all of this talk of Quidditch is making me want to go outside. Who's up for taking a walk before dinner?" Pansy asked with a smile.

"Sure, let's go!" Ginny replied. She was feeling discouraged now that she knew that only one girl had ever been on the team.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Ginny and her friends were lying on a blanket beneath the willow tree by the lake, trying to think of something to do.

"I have an idea, let's go swimming!" Blaise said excitedly.

"I don't know Blaise, we don't have our swimsuits." Pansy replied looking very disappointed.

"Aww...c'mon Pans, we're only wearing shorts and tank-tops we can swim in them." Ginny looked at her pointedly.

"Oh alright, let's go swimming then. The last one in the lake is a rotten egg!" Pansy yelled.

Ginny made a mad dash for the water, but was stopped just short of the edge. Draco had picked her up and swung her over his shoulder; next thing she knew, she was being tossed into the lake. When she resurfaced she looked around, Pansy was giggling while Blaise high-fived Draco; Vince and Greg were just standing on the edge of the lake grinning. Ginny had an idea, she swam back below the surface and swam over to Draco and pulled him under water with her. Somehow he had managed to gain control of the situation and when they resurfaced he was holding her in his arms, bridal style.

"Hmm… now that I've got you what am I going to do with you?" Draco said while lifting her above his head.

Ginny momentary surprise that he was strong enough to lift her that high was suppressed when she realized just what it was that he was planning to do, he was going to toss her into the water. "Blondie, if you do what I think you are about to do I'm going to kill you!" Ginny struggled against Draco. She then looked around to see if her friends would help her, but they had all swam to the far side of the lake and were playing water tag.

Draco, who was shaking with laughter decided to play nice and put her down gently back in the water. Once she was safely back in the water Ginny splashed Draco with water and ran for land. When she was under the cover of the willow branches, she peeked out and looked for Draco; he was coming right for her! Right then she had an idea, she would get him! She started running his way, hoping to trick him with a juke move and trip him up once she got close enough. She must have misjudged how fast he was going, because the next thing she knew she had run right into him, and they were both on the ground, him on top of her.

Ginny looked up at Draco, he had a surprised look on his face; he had avoided squishing her by falling with his arms outstretched; caging her in-between his them. They stayed like that for what seemed like forever, staring at each other; soon Ginny began to notice that Draco eyes had begun to travel down, towards her lips. Ginny's heart was hammering in her chest, and she was beginning to feel really hot; was he going to kiss her? He looked back into her eyes and in that minute she knew he was, she began to inch her head forward at about the same time he brought his lips down to hers, and kissed her, softly and gently.

The kiss was broke off by Blaise wolf-whistling, followed by Pansy's giggle, once they had disentangled themselves and stood Ginny looked at her friends. Blaise, Pansy, Vince, and Greg all looked genuinely happy.

"Ooooh! So does this mean you two are an item now?" Pansy grinned.

Ginny didn't know how to answer, she really liked Draco… and he had kissed her.

"Well, if Red here will have me, then yes." Draco replied with a smirk.

Ginny looked at Draco, he was watching her with a questioning look. Then she replied nodded, then replied "Of course I will, but we may need to lay low for a little while because of my brothers and all. I'm not ashamed or anything I just don't want to cause any more trouble."

"Oh, my goodness! I did it, I got them together!" Pansy squealed with delight.

"I understand Red, but it's going to be pretty hard to keep from the rest of the house, they wouldn't share information to outsiders anyways so we should be pretty safe." Draco said with a smile.

Ginny looked at Draco with a grin and walked closer to him, and he enveloped her in his arms; this time when they kissed nothing else in the world mattered at that moment but them.


	7. Quidditch Tryouts and the Unexpected

**I am so very sorry that it has taken me so long to update! I got stuck and just couldn't finish this chapter for the longest time. Plus, I've had a lot going on around me lately. The good news is that while I was stuck figuring out where I wanted this chapter to go, I started writing some future chapters that I knew where going to be in the story, which includes a huge chunk of Chapter 8! **

**I own nothing!**

* * *

It was finally the day of Quidditch tryouts and for once, all was going well. Ginny and Draco's relationship was still a secret to everybody but the Slytherins, and Ginny hadn't been bothered by the Gryffindors since their altercation in the Great Hall. Although, Granger had been shooting her dirty looks and trying to prove her wrong in class whenever she answered a question.

It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, and as Ginny walked down to the Quidditch Pitch with Draco and Blaise she could already tell that it was going to be a warm day. The only person already on the Pitch was the team's captain Marcus Flint, and when they approached him he looked at Ginny and growled,

"Draco told me that you would be trying out, you had better be worth it little girl. I don't like to have my time wasted".

Before Ginny could reply, Draco spoke up, "I assured you it would be well worth your time Flint, and remember what I told you, whether she gets on the team or not, if you give her a fair tryout Father will equip the whole team with new Nimbus 2000s".

Ginny looked sharply at Draco and said sternly, "I don't need you throwing around your wealth just to get me a tryout Drake, if he doesn't want me then that's fine".

"You told me you wanted a tryout Red, and I got you one. If I had to use a little bribery then that's fine, I accomplished my goal. I got you what you wanted; I thought you'd be happy." Draco shrugged.

"I am happy Draco; I just don't like you bribing him just to get me on the team." Ginny replied in exasperation.

Marcus sighed, he hated showing that he could be nice, "He didn't tell me to put you on the team, he just wanted to get you a fair tryout, and I fully intend to do just that, not because of the brooms, we all can afford our own. Although it will be nice for the team to all have the same model, and it will give us an edge and make us more intimidating to the other teams. The real reason I decided to give you a tryout is because there's something about you, I've seen the way that members of our House have rallied around you. I think that it would do this team some good if you were on it, but as I said before, you better not waste my time."

By this time, the rest of the current team and those who were going to tryout had arrived. Many of Ginny's fellow Slytherins looked surprised to see her there. They all knew that the last girl on the team had been Draco's mum and none of them could even remember the last time a girl had tried out.

Marcus started the tryouts by giving a lecture "I can see that many of you have now realized that Ginevra here is trying out for the team, let me assure you that she will receive no special treatment and will be evaluated the same as if she were a male. The current members of the team being myself and Max here are safe and do not have to try out." he said pointing to Maxwell Goyle, who was Greg's older brother. "Since there are only two of us currently on the team all other positions are up for grabs; once I, along with Max, who I have named as my second in command, have evaluated all of your performances we will decide who will be on the team. We also need reserve players, so if you do not make the team you still have a chance at being on reserve and playing if we have any unfortunate accidents." Marcus knelt down and opened the ball chest, "We'll start with chaser tryouts, those of you not trying out for chaser go sit down."

Ginny, along with a couple of fifth years whose names she couldn't remember were the only ones trying out for chaser position, so Marcus sent them all up at the same time, then went up too. Draco had lent her his own Nimbus 2000 to use, so she hopped on it and took to the air.

"Okay, so we're going to start off with a couple passing drills," Marcus said tossing the Quaffle to Ginny, "I want you to start off. Fly to the southern goal post and back, once you get within fifteen feet of me I want you to pass it."

Ginny took off towards the goalpost, the feeling was exhilarating, Draco's broom was the fastest she had ever been on. Once she got to the goalpost, she whipped the broom around and sped off towards Marcus. Once she got about twenty feet away, she decided that she would go ahead and throw it; she knew she could make it because when she used to steal her brother's brooms at home she would practice throwing the old practice Quaffle that they had. Marcus, who had expected her to miss at fifteen feet, was rather impressed that she could make such a good throw at twenty.

Hiding his surprise, he said, tossing the Quaffle back to Ginny "Alright, now I want to see your goal throwing technique. Since we don't have a keeper yet I will act as one for the duration of the tryouts." Marcus flew off to the nearest goal post.

Ginny followed, Quaffle in hand. She stopped about twenty-five feet from the goalpost, she was looking at the middle post trying to confuse Marcus; her plan was to get him to protect the middle so she could throw into one of the outside hoops. Once she was sure that he thought she was going to throw to the middle she took a shot at the left hoop. Marcus, keeping a straight face, threw the ball back to her; Ginny knew the last technique wasn't going to work this time so she turned around and took off down the pitch and came back again. Once she was almost there she acted like she was going to throw left again, since Marcus was protecting the middle; when he moved towards the left, she tossed the ball into the right post. This went on for about ten more minutes, with Ginny making all but one goal because she threw too high.

"Alright, this is where things get interesting. Max has just gone down to get the beaters; this is last phase of your tryout and the first of theirs. They will be sent up into three pairs of two, don't worry, they're using practice Bludgers which are much softer. I want to see how well you do under pressure, I want you to fly down the field while dodging Bludgers, I want to see if you can still make goals with Bludgers flying at you."

Ginny who was kind of nervous about this, just nodded and took off with the Quaffle. After about two minutes the Bludgers started flying, the first group was Vince and Greg. Ginny knew that they weren't going easy on her because every five seconds she could hear the crack of ball and bat, and the whistle of a Bludger headed her way. About ten minutes and a couple of close calls later, Ginny was finished with her tryout; she had made seven goals and missed two during this portion of the tryout.

"You're done Ginevra. My decision will be announced after tryouts." Marcus said.

Ginny was glad that her tryout was over, it had worn her out. She walked over to where Draco and Blaise were waiting and sat down to watch the rest of the chaser and beater tryouts.

Grabbing her hand, Draco said "You looked really good out there, I'm sure Marcus will put you on the team."

"Oh come on Draco, I wasn't that good. I'm sure the others are better." she replied.

"Really Gin, you were good, he would have to be stupid not to put you on the team." Blaise said.

''You really don't know how good you are, do you Red?" Draco asked. "That's something that you're going to have to work on, both as a Slytherin and as my girlfriend. We Slytherins are superior to everybody else, and thus we act accordingly. I as a Malfoy deserve and have nothing but the best of everything, which is where you come in as my girlfriend. Remember Gin, the best and nothing but the best" he added rather smugly.

"Oh, so you only like me for my talents Malfoy?" Ginny asked dryly. She was only half serious, but wanted to see what kind of reaction she could get out of Draco.

"C'mon Gin, you know I didn't mean it like that! I was just trying to show you that in order to be the best, you have to believe in yourself and act like the best. You know I like you for who you are and not what you do." Draco said.

"I know...I was just playing." Ginny replied with a smile.

The three of them sat like that until Marcus walked up to them and said "Malfoy you're up."

Ginny watched Draco's tryout and had to admit that he was pretty good, although she knew a few tricks that she had learned from watching Charlie practice at home that she could probably teach him. Once his was over, she watched the other seeker tryouts until it was Blaise's turn. He was trying out for keeper, and he had to defend the goals against Marcus and Max, being as they actually had played as chasers in a real Quidditch match before.

After all of the tryouts were finished, Marcus and Max walked into the Slytherin locker room to decide who would be put on the team. They were in there for about an hour, and when they did come out Marcus had a look of surprise on his face.

He looked at the tryout results in his hand,

"Well, I can honestly say that I didn't see this one coming...the results of the tryouts I mean. I guess there's a first time for everything", he said the last more to himself than to the group.

Everyone looked at him in anticipation.

He looked down at his list, "The new beaters are Vincent and Gregory, congratulations you two. I look forward to playing with you this year."

Vince and Greg let out a whoop and Max came and clapped his brother on the back.

"Keeper is Blaise, welcome to the team" Marcus said.

Pansy, who had just come from breakfast, joined Draco and Ginny in congratulating him, giving him a kiss and hugging him.

"Our new seeker is Draco. I think we all knew that was happening, being there hasn't been a decent seeker talent on this team since his father ruled the dungeons" Marcus joked with a smirk.

"You know it Flint, leave it all up to the Malfoys to get things done around here." he said arrogantly, half joking.

"Don't let your head get too big Malfoy, or you won't be able to fly properly." Marcus said with a smirk.

Last, but certainly not least, our newest chaser is Ginevra..." Marcus couldn't finish the rest of his sentence because Draco had picked Ginny up and was spinning her around.

"You did it Red! I knew you could." he said, stopping to plant a sweet kiss on her lips.

When he put her down, Blaise and Pansy gave her hugs and congratulated her.

Once everybody quieted down, Marcus finished what he was saying, "Ginevra, I honestly didn't think you could do it...there's only one other female that has ever been on this team. I'm glad to see that you proved me wrong, you're one hell of a chaser and I'm looking forward to playing alongside you this year. Congratulations." He then turned to rest of the group and said "Those of you whose names weren't called, if you're interested you can still come to practice and we will try to work you in as a reserve. Now, let's go get ourselves some lunch."

After lunch Ginny walked with Draco to Snape's office so that he could make good on his promise to get the team brooms. When they arrived, Severus was sitting behind his desk grading papers; he had a scowl on his face and looked rather murderous. Once he looked up from his papers and saw who had entered his office, his face softened slightly and he asked, "What do you need Draco?"

Draco, who had no idea what had his godfather in such a mood, took a tentative step forward and said, "I was wondering if I could borrow your fireplace to floo Father? There is something important that I need to ask him."

"You know that you don't have to ask to borrow my fireplace Draco, I told you that you could use it anytime you wanted." Severus said, his lip curling up in a smirk, "I take it that tryouts went well?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact they did. You are looking at your newest seeker and chaser." Draco beamed.

"Well congratulations then, go on ahead." Severus said.

Once Draco went through the door to Severus' private quarters, Ginny decided to see why he was so angry.

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, I noticed that you looked angry..." she hesitated. Before she could finish her question, Severus answered.

"Please Ginevra, in private you may call me Severus, my problem is really a question that I must ask you." he moved some papers towards her, "The question is, why must students cheat? The work that I set for your class really isn't that hard is it? And if they do cheat why don't they at least try to make it look a little less obvious instead of copying word for word from another student?"

"Well Severus...if I'm to call you that, you should call me Ginny, everybody else does...the workload isn't really that hard."

Ginny looked down at the papers in front of her, the names had been covered up but she didn't need a name to see that one of the papers in front of her had to be Ron's; if one of the papers was his the other two had to be Potter's and Granger's.

''If I know my brother like I do, I would say he was too lazy and stupid to do his own assignment, and copied Granger's down to the word because of the very same reasons. Laziness and stupidity are two of Ronald's rather unfortunate qualities. I don't know why Potter cheated, but if I had to guess, he's probably too wrapped up in his own ego to worry about petty things such as schoolwork." she replied.

"That seems like a reasonable conclusion, Potter is unfortunately like his father in that he is self-absorbed. I am glad that you aren't caught up in an obsession with him. Ginny, I have to say I was worried that history would repeat itself through you." Severus said offhandedly, with a faraway look in his eye.

"What do you mean Professor?" Ginny asked, she was curious about what he meant by history repeating itself.

"Well, it's hard to explain..." he began, "A long time ago, back when I was at Hogwarts as a student myself; I had the pleasure of being friends with two extraordinary witches. Both of these girls were smart and excellent Quidditch players, they were just people that you were felt privileged to know because of how good they were talent wise and as people; you remind me a lot of those girls Ginny. One girl I had met the year before I was to go to Hogwarts, and over the few years of our friendship I had grown to love her...and to this day I still do. The other was a girl I had known literally all my life; she was a few years older than me. We were good friends and she had once been my best friend's promised, even when that got broken off, the three of us were practically inseparable." he said sighing sadly.

Ginny was still confused about what this had to do with any feelings she did or didn't have for Potter, so she said as much. "I'm still confused, what does this have to do with me and Potter?"

"Well, you see what I was worried about was that you would forget and reject everything good that you know about Slytherins just because of some arrogant, big-headed, Gryffindor boy who refuses to see the world in anything but black and white...good and evil if you will...instead of the shades of gray that it should be seen in. That's what happened to the girl that I loved so dearly Ginny; she turned her back on me, for a boy who convinced her that I was evil because I was Slytherin. The other girl, after her promising to our mutual friend fell through, also started seeing a Gryffindor boy who tried to turn her against us Slytherins. However, she didn't exactly turn her back on us completely; not for lack of trying from said closed minded boyfriend...longtime friendship isn't something you can totally let go of. She's only just been in contact with me recently; but I think she secretly writes letters to some of the girls on occasion. I just don't want you to follow down their paths, not that I think you will...you don't have to live in Gryffindor Tower and have your mind poisoned against everything Slytherin, although you do have a family of Gryffindors who are trying to separate you from your friends." he said bitterly.

After a moment, he added in a softer tone, "You have good friends Ginny, you've brought a new energy to the dungeons, and if the rumors I've heard are true, my godson is your boyfriend. I know your relationship is still new, and the two of you are young...but I just wanted to tell you this so that you know that it's still okay to stay friends if the two of you do split up. If there's anything I want you to always remember from this conversation, it's that...and to not look at things as just good or evil, but to see them as both."

Ginny didn't know who the two girls were, but she could tell that Severus cared a lot about them, it sounded to her that something happened to them considering the warning he was giving her. She decided to just ask "If you don't mind my asking, what happened to the two girls?"

Severus sighed; Ginny could tell that he didn't want to answer this question.

With eyes that looked dangerously close to tears, he answered her question "Well, both girls ended up falling in love with and marrying the arrogant bastards. The older of the two is still married, while there is love in the marriage, her husband a controlling man who still refuses to see let go of his prejudices, which is why she can only write letters to her childhood friends in secret. The other, well her arrogant bastard of a husband got her killed, my darling Lily is dead." Severus said softly not realizing that he had let his deepest secret slip.

Ginny looked at him with wide eyes, no...it couldn't be the same person, she thought.

Severus, seeing the expression on her face and realizing what he had just said, sighed "Yes, Ginny...the girl that I fell in love with all of those years ago, is none other than Lily Potter, you can see now why I loathe Harry now can't you? He is so much like his father, and he just seems to be trying to throw away the gift of life that his mother sacrificed herself for. That is something that I expect not to ever leave my office...understand?"

"I won't tell a soul, not even Draco." she replied still stunned at the idea that Severus Snape loved Lily Potter.

"You won't tell me what?" Draco asked, he had stepped out of Severus' personal chambers in time to hear Ginny tell his Uncle Sev that she wouldn't tell him something.

"Nothing important Drake, let's go take a walk by the lake while it's still light out and you can tell me about how your chat with your father went." Ginny said.

When the two walked out of his office, Severus let out a sigh. Not because he thought he couldn't trust Ginny to keep his secret, this was a sigh of relief. Draco had arrived just in time to save him from answering the next question he knew Ginny was most likely going to ask, who the other girl in the story was. Not that he would have minded answering, it just wasn't his place to. She would know the answer soon enough.

/././././././././././././././

The following Monday, after dinner, Ginny made her way with Vince and Greg towards the dungeons to serve the first night of their detentions. When they arrived, they noticed that the Gryffindors were already there. Ron, Potter, and Granger were sitting at a table together discussing something in whispers; Fred and George, however were standing right by the door when they walked in. When Ginny walked past them, she felt George slip something into her cloak pocket. Even though she was still very angry with the both of them, she was curious as to what it was. She looked at him with a quirked eyebrow; he looked into her eyes almost pleadingly and whispered,

"Read it later."

Ginny just nodded and took her seat right in front of Severus' desk with Vince and Greg, she didn't have to wait very long before he arrived.

"I'm glad to see that you could all make it," Severus sneered, "you will be cleaning my potions labs...the muggle way. Since you have a week of detention, you will not only be cleaning the actual rooms, you will be cleaning and organizing the storage cupboards, refilling any ingredients that are low, and cleaning cauldrons. Potter and Ronald Weasley lab 3 is yours, Fred and George Weasley you will be in lab 4, Vincent and Gregory are in lab 2, Ginevra and Granger you will be with me. At eleven you may all come and collect your wands." he held out his hand for their wands.

Once the others had went to their respective labs to clean, Ginny looked around to see where to start. She decided the smartest thing to do would be to clean the potions cabinets first. She started taking the jars that held ingredients out and sat them on one of the nearby tables. Once she had all of the jars out, she found a little hand broom and swept the loose stuff out.

"I just swept there." Granger said with a huff from somewhere behind her.

Ginny knew that the only way to get through this night without murdering Granger would be to ignore her, so she did just that and walked towards the cleaning supplies that Severus had set out. She grabbed some spray and a rag, and walked back to the cupboard.

"Are you deaf?" Granger asked.

Ginny rolled her eyes and turned around to face Granger.

"No, I am not deaf. I am just trying to get through this night without earning myself more detentions, but you just can't help yourself can you? You're intentionally pushing my buttons, and if you don't watch out I'll make what I did to you the other morning look like child's play."

She turned back around, and started spraying down the cabinet. She heard Granger's footsteps and felt her walk up close.

"You wouldn't, you're already in enough trouble as it is. You know, I heard your daddy wants to pull you out of school...not that I blame him. It must be such a disappointment for him, having his only daughter disgrace the family name the way you have. You better watch out Ginny, your little friends are brainwashing you...you're going to turn into a pure blooded, supremacy-minded robot just like them." she whispered in Ginny's ear.

Ginny quickly turned around and faced Granger nose to nose,

"You better watch your fucking mouth Granger; you have no idea what you're talking about. If you think that what I did to you was bad, then you better not go around saying shit like that because I don't think my little friends as you called them, will be so forgiving. There's already a few girls that I know would love to tear you to pieces just because of the way you act all high and mighty, thinking your smarter than everybody."

Severus cleared his throat at the from the front of the room,

"Ladies, get back to work. This lab isn't going to clean itself."

"Yes sir." Ginny said with a note of respect for her head of house clear in voice, and went back to cleaning out her cupboard. Granger, on the other hand, made a growling noise in the back of her throat, that girl was just asking for it Ginny thought.

Once she had it looking clean, Ginny started wiping down the ingredient jars and refilling them before putting them back in the cupboard. She worked this way for about 20 minutes, humming a Weird Sisters song while doing so, when she was finished she walked to the front of the room where the cauldrons were kept. The ones in this room were the seventh years'; some of these cauldrons had been with their owners for their whole time at Hogwarts. The insides of the cauldrons were clean, but the outsides looked like they had never been cleaned.

Ginny was staring at the cauldrons, trying to figure out what chemicals she could use to get them really clean, she never did anything halfway. She walked over to the cleaners and grabbed a bottle of polisher and a bottle of cauldron cleaner, picking up a scrubber and polishing cloth as well. On her way back to the cauldrons, she noticed that Granger had started washing tables now. Ginny grabbed a nearby chair and started cleaning cauldrons.

Just as Ginny had finished her last cauldron, she heard the footsteps of the others, she looked at the clock. It was indeed eleven, and quitting time. She walked over to Severus' desk and grabbed her wand, he just nodded to her and she left. She was bone tired, she wanted a shower and to go to bed.

Once she got back in her dorm and had showered, she lay in her bed and opened the note from Fred and George. She had to admit, even though she was pretty peeved about the way that they had treated her, she was mighty curious about what they had to say.

_Ginny,_

She noticed that the writing was George's, by the way that the words were formed. He always started off his words in print and finished in cursive by joining the last few letters together.

_We are very sorry about the way we treated you. We don't want to fight with you baby-sister, we felt like we were losing you, and Ron kept saying that you were changing and that you thought you were better than all of us now. He said that your friends were the ones changing you, and that they weren't letting anyone in our family near you, that's why we approached you at lunch. What we saw from this wasn't that they were trying to keep you away from us; they were trying to protect you (we did come on rather aggressively). With that said, we think that they may be keepers. Just keep in mind to always watch your back Ginny, your house mascot isn't a snake for nothing._

_We are not mad at you for your placement in Slytherin, although we are loathe to admit that our baby sister is a slimy snake now and an abomination the name Weasley. Don't set your fangs at us now little sister, we are just kidding. After some thought and discussion, we must tell you, you've made us proud Ginny. You have managed to cause the greatest amount of chaos that we have seen in a long time, and you do know how we love chaos. We couldn't have managed with all of our best laid pranks what you did in five minutes with the sorting hat._

_We just want you to know that we love you, and that we will always be there for you if you need us. We have pranks to plan (stay away from the fourth floor east corridor), and unfortunately homework to do, so we must finish this letter._

_We pay our homage to you, our dear baby sister and Queen of the Snake Pit,_

_Gred and Forge_

By the time she had finished reading, there were tears in her eyes. She wasn't crying out of sadness, these were tears of joy and laughter. Those two always knew how to make a joke at someone else's expense without offending. She was so glad that the older twins were not mad at her; she needed someone else in her corner. She wasn't exactly sure where her mother stood, but although she hadn't got a reply to her letter from Bill, she was pretty sure he would stand by her no matter what. Bill had always been there for her.

Ginny fell asleep with a smile on her face that night, everything was going to work out, she just knew it. Her whole family hadn't completely turned against her.


End file.
